A video posted on Facebook (FB) and YouTube repeats an untrue claim that a 16th-century astrologer predicted President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos’ win in the 2022 elections.
The false video’s title read: “Ang Prediksyon Ni Nostradamus Sa Ating Bansa Na Nagkatotoo Na (Nostradamus’ prediction for the Philippines came true)! | Nostradamus Prophecy.”
In it, a narrator said Nostradamus wrote this verse in his 1555 book Les Prophéties:
“In the 57th of 19th Century / the peace and justice and the blood of love / from the blessed. Land of the Oriental pearl in Asia / an innocent boy shall be born.”
Not true. Nostradamus never prophesied anything referring to the Philippines or Marcos’ election. VERA Files Fact Check previously debunked this claim as false.
Keyword searches in a 1947 English translation of Les Prophéties titled “The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus” did not show the terms “Oriental pearl,” “57th of 19th Century,” or “Marcos.”
It is also incorrect to say 1957 — Marcos’ birth year — is “57th of 19th Century,” like the video’s narrator claimed. The phrase actually refers to 1857.
A Rappler fact check article on the same claim pointed out that the term “Pearl of the Orient Seas,” referring to the Philippines, was coined only in 1751 by Spanish priest and historian Juan J. del Gado. This was nearly 200 years after Nostradamus published his divinations.
The video first appeared on Jan. 18 on YouTube channel Kaalam PH (created on Aug. 1, 2019) and was reuploaded four days later on FB page Kaalam PH (May 21, 2019 under the name Jose Manalo Lang).
These garnered a total of 21,200 reactions, 2,245 comments, and 384,000 views collectively. It circulated around the same time Marcos arrived in Switzerland for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
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