A Facebook (FB) post is erroneously claiming that senatorial candidates Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and Erwin Tulfo have left the President Ferdinand Marcos-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas.
On Feb. 18, a verified FB page, which also supports the Duterte family, published the spurious post. It read:
“MGA LODS BALITA KO SI SOTTO AT TULFO Kumalas na daw sa Team PBBM dahil biglang tagilid ang gropo. Totoo ba ito.
(Idols, I heard that Sotto and Tulfo already left Team Marcos because the group is in danger [of losing]. Is this true)”
In the comments, the FB page and netizens are speculating that both candidates bolted following the Ayansa slate’s Feb. 15 rally in Davao del Norte, which allegedly had poor reception among voters.
This is false. Both Sotto and Tulfo are still part of the administration-backed senatorial ticket and have made no statements announcing intentions to leave the alliance.
Hours after the falsehood emerged, both Sotto and Tulfo appeared at the Pasay City grand rally of the Alyansa alliance. Both candidates briefly mentioned how they will implement their platforms with the help of the Marcos administration.
At the end of the rally, Marcos reiterated his endorsement for all 12 senatorial candidates, including Sotto and Tulfo.
The two candidates also attended the Feb. 20 Alyansa rally held in Negros Oriental.
The erroneous post emerged on the day Marcos hit back at Duterte over the latter’s threat to kill 15 senators to make enough space for all the senatorial candidates he endorsed in the upcoming midterm elections.
FB page DJ Surdo Salanap (created on June 21, 2019) published the post with the untrue claim, garnering over 4,100 reactions, 2,200 comments and 230 shares.
