At least three Facebook posts are claiming that Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano has chosen Sen. Rodante Marcoleta as the new head of the Senate blue ribbon committee. This is false.
The FB posts were published on May 19 and 20, carrying a “news” graphic riddled with misspellings and incorrect punctuation. Cayetano was wrongly referred to as “SP; Peter Allan Cayetano.” The graphic bore the false announcement:
“Cayetano to put Senator Marcoleta in blue ribbon committee to open flood control scandal issue..!!”
On May 20, the Upper Chamber designated the senate president’s sister Pia as head of the powerful blue ribbon committee, which has been investigating corruption in flood control projects.
She replaced Sen. Ping Lacson amid the reorganization of senate committees, following the May 11 coup of 13 senators which installed Alan Peter as the new Senate president.
Meanwhile, Marcoleta is the new chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights.
The younger Cayetano previously stated that he was considering both his sister and Marcoleta for the blue ribbon committee leadership. Chairpersons of permanent committees are chosen by the Senate, according to its Rules. In practice, the majority bloc usually distributes committee chairmanships among its members. The senate president has substantial influence in assigning these positions.
Despite the confirmation of the new committee leaderships, netizens continued to engage with the false graphics, with several netizens throwing their support behind Marcoleta. The false graphic originated from the TikTok account Boy Politiko, which publishes political content critical of the Marcos administration and assigns a “news” sticker in nearly all of his posts.
The three untrue posts published in FB groups Sara Duterte Supporters and Security Hiring ASAP have so far garnered 2,458 reactions, 547 comments, and 271 shares.
