At least three Facebook posts claim to show a police mugshot of former House Speaker Martin Romualdez holding a placard with his name on it, the date, and his plunder case number. The image was created using artificial intelligence, and the posts are fake.
Published on Sept. 15, the posts came with the caption:
“Look: Former House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s mugshot. Detained at the New Quezon City Jail, he faces plunder charges in connection with the Flood Control scandal.”
In the fabricated mugshot, Romualdez’s face is clearly visible as he stands wearing the standard yellow Person Deprived of Liberty shirt of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
The image mimics the mugshot released by the Department of the Interior and Local Government on Sept. 15, where the former speaker’s eyes and the placard he is holding are blurred. This official mugshot has a different background from the fake one.
VERA Files Fact Check ran the dubious image through multiple detection tools to confirm its authenticity. SightEngine flagged it as 99% likely AI-generated, while both IsThisAI and DeepAI reported 86% confidence it is an AI creation. WasItAI and ImageWhisperer similarly detected artificial anomalies while Hive Moderation returned a score of 94.6%.
Romualdez is facing the plunder case before the anti-graft court over alleged kickbacks of over P7 billion from government projects from 2022 to 2025. He was transferred to the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas from the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City on Sept.14 on orders of the Sandiganbayan Third Division.
The fabricated image surfaced a day after DILG posted Romualdez’s mugshot following his transfer.
Posted by several FB users and The Filipino Reporters page (created June 8, 2013), the post has so far garnered 3,885 reactions, 1,390 comments, and 235 shares.
