A video posted on Facebook shows former vice president Leni Robredo, currently the mayor of Naga City, supposedly promoting a ‘trading platform.’ This is fake and manipulated using artificial intelligence, according to experts.
The video has been circulating as early as Oct. 11, although most of the FB posts have already been inaccessible. The latest copy of the video that VERA Files has tracked, published on Oct. 14, carried a superimposed text that read:
“THE LENI ROBREDO PROJECT: A SCAM OR A REAL OPPORTUNITY FOR FILIPINOS TO EARN MONEY?”
In the nine-minute, 16-second video, Robredo can be seen supposedly promoting a new trading platform during a media interview. The video bore the logos of digital news channel NewsWatch Plus PH and its program, Zoom In with Menchu Macapagal, on the sides. Robredo was shown in the video saying in part:
“To join and start receiving passive income automatically, do not click on fake links. The link below this video is official, and by using it, you can truly start earning. I personally guarantee this. This project is supported by the government of the Philippines. BDO, Unibank, and Metrobank are among the developers of this trading platform and serve as guarantors that participants will receive stable profits. Already, more than 1,000 Filipinos are earning over P920,000 per month on this platform. As you can see, everything is absolutely transparent and simple…Registration is open until the end of today, and every Filipino citizen can still become a participant. To activate your account on the trading platform, you only need P14,350. In fact, I am also a participant and earned P920,000 this month. The platform works in such a way that your income grows each month. So, P920,000 is only the minimum monthly income. The key is to join in time and activate your account. After that, the trading robot will automatically start trading on the financial market on your behalf. There are no age restrictions. Even retirees are receiving stable passive income because it is very simple.”
Attached to the video is a link that redirects netizens to a news article about the trading platform supposedly published by ABS-CBN News on its website. In the article, the alleged platform was named “EquiLoomPRO.”
In an Oct. 12 post on her official personal FB page, Robredo dismissed as “fake and AI-generated” a now-defunct copy of the video.
The following day, NewsWatch Plus Philippines also issued an advisory, stating that it is “not associated with this Facebook post spreading disinformation,” referring to the video of Robredo about the alleged trading platform posted by an FB page “Wallet Whisper” on Oct. 11.
“We did not interview former vice president Leni Robredo about a new trading platform for Filipinos,” NewsWatch Plus Philippines added.
A reverse image search revealed that NewsWatch Plus Philippines uploaded the original video on July 6, 2024, where Robredo talked about her candidacy for mayor in the May 2025 elections, among others. She never mentioned anything about a trading platform in the unedited interview.
‘AI-generated’ audio
VERA Files sent the video to the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) of the India-based Misinformation Combat Alliance for analysis.
Experts said that the AI detection tool, Hive AI, “did not find any frame where the faces of either of the women are found to be tampered with A.I.”
But for audio analysis, results from three out of four AI detection tools used by the DAU found the voice in the video to be AI-generated.
“Save for the last [seven] seconds, the tool found the entire audio track to be ‘AI-generated.’ So, an overwhelming majority of the audio track was found to be synthetic in nature,” said DAU after running the video through Hive AI audio classifier.
Further analysis using Hiya Audio Intelligence showed the voice in the video “seems generated or modified by AI,” concluding “there is only a 3% match with live human markers.” Aurigin.ai, a Swiss deep-tech company with an advanced audio deepfake detection engine, also detected the audio to be 96% AI-generated.
However, results from ElevenLabs speech classifier indicated that it was “unlikely” the audio was manipulated, with a probability of 11%.
The DAU pointed out some signs that a video is a financial scam, including the targeting of someone important such as politicians, celebrities, and even business moguls; “honeyed statements” such as “confessing to having used the platform/app themselves; and the packaging of the video to imitate “important and genuine events” like newsroom interviews and/or public speeches.
Fake report, impostor page
The post carried a link that leads to a supposed ABS-CBN News report about the trading platform, where netizens can also register. This is fake and the network did not publish such a report.
ABS-CBN News’ official website can be found at abs-cbn.com. The attached link to the fake and AI-manipulated video has a domain name frizerovshikfasad.com.
Imitating legitimate media organizations is a common modus by scammers. VERA Files has debunked other AI-manipulated videos of government officials promoting financial platforms along with fake news reports.
The AI-manipulated platform endorsement surfaced a day after Robredo reported on her first 100 days as mayor of Naga City.
FB page Block Vault (created on Sept. 15, 2025 and has an address located in Georgia, United States of America) published the fake ad, which has garnered 168 reactions, 7 comments and 5,300 views.
