A YouTube video claims that former vice president Leni Robredo defended her successor Sara Duterte from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., over her office’s alleged misuse of confidential funds. This is fake.
Robredo never said anything to express support for Duterte amid the controversy. The video merely revived a bogus quote attributed to her.
Uploaded on Jan. 22, the video’s headline read:
“LENI IPINAGTANGGOL SI SARA KAY MARCOS! IKAW ANG KURAP (Leni defended Sara against Marcos! You are corrupt).”
To support its claim, the video flashed at the 0:48 mark a fabricated quote card of Robredo supposedly defending Duterte’s use of confidential funds. The video narrator then read the fake quote which said:
“Before I answer that, I want to clear things first, we’re not friends, I don’t like Sara Duterte but I also don’t dislike her, hindi naman kami magkaaway pero honestly, ang confidential funds kasi is for general use, unlike budgets na may specific na ano, na pag gagamitan. Ang gusto kasi ng quad com is detalyado ang reports ng OVP, peso by peso dapat sabihin saan ginamit eh hindi po ganun yun. Hindi pwede yung gusto nila kaso confidential funds nga yun.
(Before I answer that, I want to clear things first: We’re not friends, I don’t like Sara Duterte but I also don’t dislike her. We’re not enemies. But honestly, the confidential funds are for general use, unlike budgets with specific purposes. What the Quad Comm wants is for the [Office of the Vice President] to give a detailed report, to specify where every peso was spent, but it does not work that way. What they want is not possible because those are confidential funds).”
No such statement came from Robredo. Barry Gutierrez, Robredo’s former spokesperson, said in a Dec. 2 Viber message to VERA Files Fact Check that “she never said anything like this.”
VERA Files Fact Check also found no articles or interviews that recorded Robredo making the statement.
The video with the fake claim emerged after some lawmakers accused Marcos of blocking impeachment complaints against Duterte, which Malacañang denied. There are currently three verified impeachment complaints filed against Duterte in the House of Representatives.
The erroneous video was labeled as “just for fun only” but some netizens believed it was true and thanked Robredo for standing up for Duterte.
Uploaded by YouTube channel Super DM (@SuperDM), the video received 254,993 interactions.
Super DM, which describes itself as a source of entertainment and drama, has posted bank details in its About page and asked netizens not to skip ads while watching the untrue video, suggesting that it creates these videos to earn money.
This month, VERA Files Fact Check debunked another fake quote – attributed to former senator Ping Lacson – which also made it appear that he was defending Duterte over the confidential funds issue.
