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VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Liberal Party has NOT announced its 2028 frontrunner

Two Facebook (FB) pages published videos with the same headlines claiming that the Liberal Party (LP) has revealed its presidential candidate for the 2028 elections. It is a false claim.

On Sept. 12, two videos were uploaded within minutes of each other, bearing the same false headline:

“Pambato Ng Liberal Sa 2028 Pinangalanan Na Ni Buguilat (sic) /leni Robredo Ekis Napantapat Daw Kay Vp Sara 

(Baguilat has named the 2028 slate of the Liberal Party; Leni Robredo, not a contender against VP Sara).”

Misspelling and mispronouncing former Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat’s surname several times as “Buguilat,” the narrators in the video erroneously claimed that LP’s vice president for internal affairs already chose a candidate to run against Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio in the 2028 presidential race.

The Liberal Party has not named its frontrunner for the 2028 elections. Neither has Duterte-Carpio announced her candidacy for president in the next polls.

The videos provided no evidence to back up the claims.

In Baguilat’s Sept. 9 Politiko interview, he only said it was his personal opinion that Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who is not a member of the LP, should think about running for a higher office in 2028 as one of the leaders of the opposition under the current administration.

He also did not mention the viability of Robredo’s candidacy in 2028.

Five days before the videos appeared, Baguilat uploaded several photos in a tweet and shared that members of his party, including Robredo and former senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, recently met over dinner.

FB pages Bbm Sara Supporters (created on Aug. 8) and Philippines New TH (May 6, 2020) published the videos with the same untrue headlines that garnered over 12,700 reactions, 4,400 comments, 650 shares, and 419,000 views.

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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)