Two Facebook (FB) pages published a set of photos supposedly showing rallies organized by supporters of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. vis-a-vis the 1986 EDSA Revolution. Both claimed the media hid the pro-Marcos events from the public.
These claims are not true: The photos, which were actually sourced from the media, were not taken during People Power.
On Feb. 25 and 26, two FB pages posted 18 photos that bore the same caption: “THE ANOTHER FACE OF EDSA 1986 (sic). ITO ANG KABILANG MUKHA NG EDSA NA HINDI PINAKITA NG MEDIA. MILYON DIN ANG LUMABAS NOON PARA MAG PAKITA NG SUPORTA KAY DATING PANGULONG FERDINAND MARCOS SR. AT SA BUONG PAMILYANG MARCOS.”
(This is the other face of EDSA that the media did not show. Millions also showed up to support the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and the entire Marcos family.)
VERA Files Fact Check gives the correct context for each of the images below.
The photo of supporters holding up a sign that says “millions of Filipinos still love Marcos” was a screenshot from an April 1986 Associated Press (AP) report.
The story was about pro-Marcos demonstrations held in front of the American embassy and at Luneta two months after Marcos fled to Hawaii.
The four images showing thousands of people marching the streets were taken from a 1986 newsreel archived by Russian digital archiving site Net-Film.
Net-Film, whose watermark is seen in the circulating false posts, wrote in its caption that the clips show the campaign rallies of Marcos and Corazon Aquino in the run-up to the Feb. 7, 1986 snap election.
The two photos of crying women were taken on April 27, 1986, grabbed from a news report archived by film repository eFootage.
The women were among thousands of Marcos supporters protesting the Aquino administration. Marcos and his wife Imelda addressed the demonstrators via a phone call from Hawaii.
The next batch of photos showed a crowd, as well as people holding balloons and images of Marcos.
These were taken from a broadcast of NBC Evening News with reporter Steve Mallory. Though undated, the report appears to have been taken after the EDSA Revolution as Mallory mentioned the “Aquino government” in his report and said Marcos had already lost power. A pro-Marcos YouTube channel archived the news segment in 2021.
Six images showing Marcos supporters were taken on Sept. 1, 1986 by award-winning photojournalist Robert Nickelsberg for Getty Images, during a demonstration in celebration of the deposed president’s 69th birthday. They can be viewed here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The last two photos (here and here) were shot in January 1986 by photojournalist Gregory Smith during a political rally against Aquino.
These posts emerged on Feb. 25, which marked the 37th anniversary of the EDSA Revolution that ended Marcos’ 20-year rule.
FB pages Kaalaman PH Media (created on Aug. 2, 2018) and Kapitan Soloman 2022 (May 24, 2018) published the posts, garnering over 3,400 reactions, 150 comments and 2,500 shares. At least 26 FB groups and pages have shared the posts with more than 25,000 interactions according to social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle.
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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.)