Misconstrued as a publicity stunt, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos drew flak after images showing him getting emotional over being labeled a “party animal” spread online.
The post is satire and taken from the teaser of his new interview with vlogger Toni Gonzaga.
On Sept. 11, a Facebook (FB) page uploaded two images from the interview showing a crying Marcos after Gonzaga asked a question. It carried subtitles that read:
[Gonzaga]: Sinasabi nila, party ka raw nang party. Ano’ng naramdaman mo tuwing tinatawag ka nilang party animal?
[Marcos]: Tinatanong ko ang sarili ko… May ginawa ba akong mali? Saan ako nagkamali? May nasaktan ba ako? Alam ko sa sarili ko na wala akong nasaktan. Siguro may na-offend ako, pero hindi naman ‘yun intentional.
(Gonzaga: They say you always just party. What do you feel when they call you a party animal?
Marcos: I ask myself… Did I do anything wrong? Where did I go wrong? Did I hurt anyone? I know for myself I didn’t hurt anyone. Maybe I offended someone, but it’s not intentional.)
The post was hashtagged “#satireonly” yet netizens still took it as fact and criticized the president for being “manipulative” for doing a “publicity stunt.”
The alleged exchange was made-up. In the actual Sept. 11 interview teaser published on the official YouTube channel of Gonzaga, the two had the following conversation:
Gonzaga: I remember when you won [on] May 9. The next day, it was posted on your Instagram that you visited your father.
Marcos: Yes.
Gonzaga: What did you tell him?
It then cuts to Marcos chiding Gonzaga for making him cry as he is shown wiping his tears with a handkerchief.
FB pages Manila KC (created on Feb. 5, 2012) and ONE CamSur (Dec. 5, 2021) reposted the satirical images without clarifying that the conversation is not real.
The satire post was published by Amor Powers 2.0 (created Sept. 3, 2022) which is tagged as a satirical FB page. The post has garnered over 20,000 reactions, 700 comments and 5,200 shares.
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