A Facebook post claims Sen. Risa Hontiveros became emotional while reading online comments on a post that labeled the “Lakbay Museo ng Paghilom” as a “drug addict museum” after an exhibit showing victims of extrajudicial killings was launched at the Senate. The post also attributes a statement to the senator, describing it as a “museum of heroes.” This is fake.
Published on Feb. 3, the fake quote card features a photo of the senator looking sad, with a text that read:
“Museum po yun nga mga bayani, hindi po sila mga adik. Sen. Risa Hontiveros nasaktan sa mga komento tungkol sa EJK museum
(That is a museum for heroes, they are not addicts. Sen. Risa Hontiveros was hurt by comments regarding the EJK museum).”
Hontiveros never made this statement. The photo that was used to depict her as “emotional” is from a completely different event.
The image used in the fake post is a screenshot from a Feb. 28, 2024 press conference posted in the YouTube channel of the Senate when the lady senator was still deputy minority leader and discussing a court’s decision on the killing by police officers of 17-year-old Jemboy Baltazar in a case of mistaken identity.
There is no record of Hontiveros referring to the facility as a “museum of heroes” (museo ng mga bayani).
The fabricated post surfaced online after the opening of the “Lakbay Museo ng Paghilom” at the Senate on Jan. 26. Hontiveros, along with Fr. Flavie Villanueva and Sen. Bam Aquino IV, graced the launching activity.
Published by FB page Pinoy Celebrity News (created in June 2017), the post has so far reached 104,000 reactions; 25,800 comments; and 2,700 shares across the platform.
