A video on YouTube is touting a conspiracy theory that the late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III staged his death in an apparent attempt to boost the presidential candidacy of former Vice President Leni Robredo in last year’s election.
This is not true. The former president passed away on June 24, 2021 or a little over six months before the official start of the 2022 general election period. He died of renal disease secondary to diabetes.
On May 17, a YouTube channel uploaded the video with the spurious headline: “JUST NOW: OMG! KUMPIRMADO PNOY nagtatago lang sa AMERICA? PNOY at KRIS BlNUNYAG ng isang SAKSI? ([Aquino] confirmed to be hiding in America? A witness exposed [him and his sister Kria Aquino]?)”
At around the 50-second mark of the 23-minute video, the narrator claimed that Aquino apparently died in the middle of the 2022 national election campaign and said that aside from the ex-president’s personal driver, no medical professional or any of the late president’s family witnessed his death.
As several news media reported, Aquino was brought to the Capitol Medical Center early morning of June 24, 2021 after his aides saw his lifeless body in his bedroom. He was pronounced dead at 6:30 a.m. and later cremated. He was laid to rest at the Manila Memorial Park two days after.
The narrator of the untrue video further said Kris Aquino also faked her illness after her brother’s death “failed” to help Robredo’s campaign. Another falsehood.
The former TV host and actress is now in the United States battling five autoimmune diseases, according to a health update on her official Instagram account.
This erroneous video emerged a week after Robredo launched her 388-page coffee table book entitled “Tayo Ang Liwanag,” which chronicles her volunteer-driven campaign for the presidency.
YouTube channel PINAS NEWS INSIDER (created on Dec. 26, 2015) published the video, garnering over 125,000 views and 4,400 interactions.
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