A Facebook post circulating online claimed that Vice President Sara Duterte said she knew President Bongbong Marcos Jr. was not a drug addict and only spread the false information to destroy his reputation. This is not true.
So far, the Vice President has not retracted a statement she made in November last year when she claimed that she “agrees with the assumption” of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is a drug addict. Neither her office nor her social media pages had any recent pronouncements to the contrary.
The graphic, which was posted as a 15-second reel, used a similar format from the local news organization News 5. Published on Sept. 19, the post contained the following claim:
“Alam namin na hindi adik si PBBM. Paninira lang namin iyan para pambudol budol namin sa mga tao para maging presidente ako. Ha ha ha
(We know that PBBM is not a drug addict. We want to confuse people by slandering him so that I can become the president. Ha ha ha).”
This is false. There are no news reports from News 5 about the vice president’s flip-flop on the Dutertes’ claim that President Marcos is a drug addict.
The graphic attributed to News 5 bore inconsistencies in text style and format compared to News 5 official posts.
This false post had mixed reactions. Some comments asked if the quote is true, while others said the poster is a “troll” posting negative content to provoke outrage.
Posted by a FB user, the post has garnered more than 200,000 plays, 2,800 likes, 864 comments and 1,100 shares, as of writing.
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.
