A week-old video claiming that neophyte senator Imee Marcos’ bill postponing village-level polls has become law is false.
Youtube channel Duterte Archives uploaded Oct. 18 an 11-minute footage bearing the title “YES! UNANG BATAS ni IMEE MARCOS bilang SENADOR, APPROVE NA (Yes! Imee Marcos’ first law now approved)!”
It showed two unrelated clips of Marcos spliced together — her interview with Inquirer.net published on Sept. 18 and her Sept. 24 interpellation during the Senate discussion on the postponement of the May 2020 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.
The video’s thumbnail also showed a collage of photos of Senate President Tito Sotto, Sen. Grace Poe and Marcos. A text was added, accusing Poe of being “envious” of the new senator’s supposed achievement.
This report is not true.
A bill on the postponement of the Barangay and SK Elections was filed by Marcos in July and was consolidated with other similar bills to become SBN 1043 in September. Though already approved by the Senate, it is still awaiting the concurrence of the House of Representatives before it can be submitted to the Office of the President for signing into law.
Senators have pushed for a two-and-a-half-year delay in the said elections, scheduling it for December 2022. This is the third time the Barangay and SK elections have been postponed in recent years. The October 2016 elections was deferred to October 2017 and then rescheduled again to May 2018.
The false report was published after the first 100-days of newly-elected officials, such as Marcos, last Oct. 8.
Duterte Archives’ misleading video has been viewed almost 76,000 times and may have reached over 850,000 followers on Facebook (FB), with SARA DUTERTE FOR PRESIDENT 2022 ELECTIONS, President Rody Facebook Army, and Status Pilipinas as its top sharers.
Duterte Archives was created on Jul 18, 2013.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
