A Facebook post is claiming that cardiologist and social media personality Doc Willie Ong has died and donated his body to medical science as stated in his supposed will. This is false.
Published on Sept. 10 by an FB page, the post had Ong’s photos and the caption:
“BREAKING NEWS: DOES ANYONE STILL REMEMBER THE LEGENDARY DOCTOR AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST WHO DEDICATED HIS LIFE TO THE NATION?
But fate was not kind to him. In his final days, he battled a terminal illness and faced severe financial hardship.
His last message — a will — shocked many: he left his final legacy to the country, not to his family.
OMG, what a powerful and selfless act!”
This is not true. Ong was diagnosed with abdominal cancer, which he publicly revealed on Sept. 14 2024, but there are no official statements or news reports about his supposed death on social media pages, his wife, Doc Liza Ong’s FB account, or from any news organization.
The post provided a link to an article saying celebrity-host Vice Ganda allegedly donated funds for Ong’s chemotherapy treatments. There is no information to back this up.
The latest updates about the former vice presidential candidate’s medical condition were posted last April 28, when he disclosed that he was stable and that the cancer had neither grown nor become smaller.
While there is no further information on his current condition, Ong has been continuously posting content on social media even after Sept. 10 when the false post surfaced. There has been nothing about his death or a final will declaring his wish to donate his body to medical science.
The post was published by FB page Balita Beat (created May 5, 2025) and garnered more than 79,000 likes, 8,600 comments and 634 shares.
Editor’s note: This fact check was produced with the help of a journalism student of the University of Santo Tomas as part of their internship at VERA Files
