A video of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. supposedly singing about the Manila flooding has been circulating online. This is fake and was generated using artificial intelligence.
Since Sept. 1, several Facebook users have posted a 10-second clip of Marcos purportedly singing in front of the press. Two of the posts carried the following captions:
“Bangag talaga (Truly a drug addict).”
“Galing Ng bosis mo BONGBONG MARCOS (Your voice is great, Bongbong Marcos). #BONGBONGMARCOSRESIGN.”
In the clip, Marcos can be seen and heard singing the line:
“Ulan sa Maynila, di na naman tumitila. Hanapbuhay na kasabay, na muling naantabay (The rain in Manila shows no signs of stopping. Livelihoods are once again put on hold).”
This is fabricated and came from a FB page known for posting AI-generated satirical videos.
On Aug. 31, RecRec page, a FB page that posts “AI-generated satire/parody content,” uploaded the original video that has since garnered more than one million views. The video bore the disclaimer “AI parody” in the top-right corner.
Several FB users have reposted the clip without the disclaimer to mislead netizens. The AI label was either cropped out or covered in the subsequent copies.
Images or clips from Marcos’ Aug. 24 interview, when he visited Pampanga to inspect the extent of the flooding caused by the southwest monsoon or habagat, were seemingly used to generate this fake clip. Marcos never sang about the heavy rains or flooding during the interview.
VERA Files ran the video in the AI-detection tool Hive Moderation and results showed that it is likely to contain AI-generated content, specifically 7% AI-generated video and 56% AI-generated speech.
Unnatural pronunciation and misuse of Tagalog words such as “kasabay” and “antabay” by the man in the video are also telltale signs of AI-use.
The AI-generated clip circulated a few days after videos of Marcos serenading First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos during her Aug. 26 birthday celebration were shared online, sparking criticism as it happened while parts of Luzon were still reeling from the effects of the monsoon rains.
In a Sept. 1 press briefing, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro clarified that the event took place at night after the president finished work but he continued monitoring the situation.
VERA Files has debunked other disinformation related to Marcos.
Five copies of the video without proper AI disclaimers, shared mostly by FB users with either “digital creator” or “blogger” on their profile bios, collectively garnered 11,749 reactions; 649 comments; 46,040 shares and 996,921 views.
