A quote card circulating online is claiming that Sen. Risa Hontiveros said she will run for president due to public pressure nagging at her conscience. This is fake.
Published beginning Jan. 26, the fake quote card carried a photo of Hontiveros along with the statement below:
“NAKONSENSYA AKO. Kaya ako tatakbo ng pagka-Presidente dahil pinipilit ako ng taumbayan. — RISA HONTIVEROS”
(My conscience is nagging at me. That’s why I will run for the presidency, because the people are urging me to. — Risa Hontiveros).
There is no record of Hontiveros making such a statement. The senator herself debunked the claim on her official Facebook page.
In an FB post on Jan. 27, Hontiveros labeled the quote card as “fake news” and urged the public to report the post and the account spreading it.
“BABALA: SINUNGALING AT NAGPAPAKALAT NG FAKE NEWS (WARNING: LIAR AND SPREADER OF FAKE NEWS),” she wrote.
The photo used in the graphics card was taken from the Kapihan sa Senado press conference on Jan. 21. Nowhere in the video did she make such a statement about running in the 2028 presidential elections.
Hontiveros has also not publicly declared her intention to run for the post, although she mentioned last May 2025 that she was “open to all possibilities” when asked whether she could be the standard-bearer of the opposition.
The fake quote card emerged after the senator was seen in a gathering with members of the 2022 senatorial slate of former Vice President Leni Robredo, including Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno, ML Rep. Leila de Lima, and former senator Antonio Trillanes IV. Hontiveros said the 2028 elections was among the topics discussed at the dinner.
A now-deleted copy of the fabricated quote card – the one flagged by Sen. Hontiveros – had earned 65,000 reactions, 18,300 comments, and 1,100 shares. Another copy posted by the FB user Angkol John received 501 comments and 26 shares.
