Netizens are circulating a quote card of Palace Press Officer Claire Castro supposedly saying the Sept. 30 Cebu quake would have been weaker had former governor Gwen Garcia won in last May’s midterm polls. This is fabricated.
Social media users started sharing on Oct. 2 a graphic featuring Castro’s photo with a logo of the Daily Tribune newspaper above. The statement Castro supposedly made on Oct. 1 read:
“Kung si ex- Gov. Gwen Garcia sana ang nanalo na gobernador ay hindi sana ganun kalakas ang lindol (Had ex-Gov. Gwen Garcia won as governor, the earthquake would not have been that strong).”
In the comments on the posts, several netizens criticized Castro for the alleged remarks.
The quote card is fake. There are no official reports that Castro, an undersecretary at the Presidential Communications Office, made such a statement.
Castro dismissed the statement as “fake news” and condemned those who created it for “personal interests” during her press briefing in Malacañang on Oct. 7.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. backed Garcia during the midterm polls, but she lost to political newcomer Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro.
The circulating graphic was an altered version of a Daily Tribune social media card, bearing Castro’s statement on a different topic.
The fake quote circulated two days after the magnitude 6.9 Cebu quake, which left at least 74 people dead and 555 people injured, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council’s latest situational report.
VERA Files has debunked other disinformation related to the PCO undersecretary.
Ten posts by FB users and pages such as Flash Report (created on Feb. 13, 2018) and Kitty Duterte’ (created on Sept. 27, 2021 as Tiktok Viral) have so far collectively garnered 4,891 reactions, 2,946 comments and 2,205 shares.
