A netizen’s online post last Nov. 18 claiming thousands of rubber slippers bearing the name of Vice President Leni Robredo were found in an abandoned camp of the New People’s Army is erroneous.
The netizen’s Facebook post featured a screengrab of an Aug. 4, 2017 story by website politics.favradio.fm, showing a photo of a pile of the Robredo-branded slippers and the headline, “Thousands of unused Robredo’s slippers found in Abandoned NPA Camp.”
The netizen wrote as its caption, “Look: Thousands of unused Robredo’s slippers found in Abandoned NPA Camp. Si Leni pala ang distributor ng mga tsinelas sa mga Rebeldeng NPA… (It turns out Leni is the distributor of rubber slippers for the NPA rebels…).”
The claims by the netizen and politicsfavradio.fm are fabricated.
The photo of the slippers was actually taken by Inquirer photographer Nino Jesus Orbeta on March 14, 2016 during the birthday celebration of Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, who distributed the free slippers bearing Robredo’s – and her – name that day to residents of Bahay Toro district, QC as part of the celebration.
The netizen’s fake post was published two days after Robredo’s camp urged the Supreme Court, sitting as Presidential Electional Tribunal, to junk former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s opposition to the use of decrypted ballot images in the ongoing vote recount between them. The recount comes as a result of Marcos’ filing in June 2016 of an electoral protest contesting Robredo’s win over him in the May 9 national polls that year.
The fake post has been shared by over 4,500 people.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
