A graphic circulating on Facebook claims that Sen. Camille Villar has been appointed as chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform. This is not true. It originated from a satire post.
First published by an FB page on May 17, the graphic, tagged as “breaking news,” featured a photo of Villar with this text:
“Sen. Camille Villar, itinalagang Chairperson ng Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform (Sen. Camille Villar appointed as Chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform)”
In its status post, the FB page noted it was “feeling sarcastic” and explicitly labeled the fabricated news card as a joke (“Joke lng (sic) po ito”) in the bottom right corner.
Three users reposted the satirical graphic on May 18, with one copy redacting the “joke” label. The FB posts drew laughing and angry reactions, with some netizens in the comment sections criticizing Villar. Her family has faced long-standing allegations of land grabbing and conversion of farmlands into subdivisions, based on media and think tank reports.
During the May 18 plenary session, the agriculture and food panel was not among the committees whose chairperson was elected. It was previously headed by Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, who is now in the minority bloc, with Villar as vice chairperson.
No official announcements or news reports showed that Villar was given any Senate panel to lead following the May 18 reshuffle. As of writing, the list of committee chairmanships on the Senate’s official website has not been updated.
Under the previous leadership of Sen. Vicente Sotto III, Villar chaired the committees on economic affairs and on environment, natural resources and climate change.
The satirical graphic emerged five days after a hearing between Pangilinan and farmers from Benguet on May 12 was canceled due to the Senate leadership shakeup.
Waya Araos-Wijangco, owner and chef at GypsyBaguio by Chef Waya, said in a May 12 FB post that their partner farmers traveled all the way to Manila “to share the realities they face, especially now, with fuel prices crushing already fragile livelihoods.”
On May 13, Araos-Wijangco posted photos of the meeting between Pangilinan and the farmers and discussed their “various concerns and scheduled more interactions so we can plan more strategies to help the farmers.”
The “sarcastic” and “joke” post by FB page VALENZUELA CITY Secret Files (created on July 11, 2015 as VALPOLY Secret Files) garnered 2,500 reactions; 280 comments and 297 shares as of writing. Other copies republished by three users, who appeared to believe the claim, collectively received 200 engagements.
