A video circulating on Facebook (FB) falsely claims that Vice President Leni Robredo has been removed from office and will be replaced by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The untrue claim was in the title of a video published by FB page Rodante Marcoleta TH. on March 9: “NAKAKAGULAT NA BALITA !… MARCOS UUPO NA TANGGAL SI LENI MAY EBIDENSYA PACQUIAO (Shocking news! Marcos will sit, Leni removed, Pacquiao has evidence).”
There is no change in the vice presidency. The Supreme Court in fact dismissed last month Marcos’ protest against Robredo’s win in the 2016 national polls. And Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao has not commented on the matter, contrary to the claim.
The content of the 17-minute video did not support its false headline.
It was composed of three clips played on a loop. These were:
- an 8-minute video alleging the 2016 elections was hacked, originally published in 2017 by several YouTube channels;
- an unrelated video of President Rodrigo Duterte spliced with an image of Kabataan Party-List Rep. Sarah Elago, while a voiceover talked about a P20-million aid for insurgent-free barangays; and
- another unrelated report about Pacquiao getting stripped of his World Boxing Association title.
The 2017 clip — titled “Philippine Democracy Hacked” — was edited to show the following text, “Comelec Leni Smartmatic Bistado (Exposed).”
The false video first appeared online three days after Marcos uploaded a vlog on his YouTube channel about his junked election protest.
Rodante Marcoleta TH.’s fallacious post continues to receive engagements on FB over two weeks later, with more than 274,000 views. It could have reached over 4.3 million people, according to social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle.
Apart from the Page itself, its top traffic generators are the FB groups MARCOS PA RIN and Val Santos Matubang Lingap Sa Mahihirap. YouTube channel DDS NEWSINFO uploaded the same untrue post on March 8, also getting over 274,000 views.
Rodante Marcoleta TH. was created in October 2020, DDS NEWSINFO in December 2012.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
