Multiple viral quote cards circulating online attributes to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. a statement urging Filipinos to bathe only once a week and for 10 people to share one bucket of water as a conservation measure. This is false and made using artificial intelligence.
In an Oct. 11 media interview, Marcos discussed ways households could prepare for a possible water shortage due to the Super El Niño. He encouraged the public to collect rainwater in containers and said the government would provide guidance on filtering and treating the collected water.
The president also advised reusing household wastewater such as dishwashing water for plants, but said nothing about bathing or sharing water.
First posted on Nov. 7 by an FB page, the graphic features an image of the president beside a fabricated statement:
“Mag praktis na kayong Isang beses lang Maligo sa isang Linggo para tipid sa Tubig…
… pagkasyahin ang isang baldeng Tubig sa 10 Ka Tao.
(Start practicing bathing only once a week to save water… Make one bucket of water enough for 10 people.)”
This is accompanied by the caption “Paano yun haha 😂… (How’s that? Haha 😂…)” followed by the fake quote on the graphic again. It even provides the hashtags #fypシ゚viralシ #viral #highlight @highlight. FB has labeled the post as AI content.
The post prompted several other FB pages to publish content reacting to the fake claim:
“Palibhasa gawain ng bangag, buwanan pa nga yan maligo 🐊🐊🐊🐊🐊
(Maybe that’s what the drug addict does; he only bathes once a month. 🐊🐊🐊🐊🐊”)
“Pagutuman at pabahuan Pala ang nais, na para bang sobrang lamig sa Pinas, para Isang beses na lang maligo ,😅😅😅
(So the intention is to make people hungry and stink, like it’s so cold in the Philippines that people only need to bathe once a week. 😅😅😅)”
“Adviser ng pangulo ano na, di Nyo pa ba Isa suggest na magpagamot na ang pangulo? aba Malala na ang mga suggestion at sinasabi nya, bago sya magsalita ng ganun apply nya muna sa sarili nya kung kaya ba nya
(What about the president’s adviser? Haven’t you suggested that he seek medical treatment yet? His suggestions and statements are becoming increasingly alarming. Before he says such things, he should try following his own advice first and see if he can do it himself.)”
These posts emerged as Marcos’ remarks went viral, generating controversy.
When the photo was analyzed using Hive Moderation, an AI-detection tool, it flagged a 99.9% likelihood that the image is AI-generated.
The posts were published by FB pages Madz Jenn (created March 27, 2016) and Meljam DL (created Dec. 19, 2022), Ofw Mixed Vlog (created Aug. 23, 2018), and was shared by several other accounts. Taken collectively, these posts generated an aggregate of 2,978 reactions; 836 comments; and 1,717 shares.
