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FACT CHECK PHL Vote 2022

VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Photo of Marcos Jr. showered with confetti was NOT taken in Cagayan

A pro-Marcos Facebook (FB) page and several FB groups are passing off a five-year-old photo of presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. showered in confetti as a recent image of him during a caravan by his supporters in Cagayan province.

A reverse image search shows that the photo of Marcos, which was uploaded by FB pages Batang Marcos and Solid BBM Supporters Region 2 on Nov. 20, was actually taken at his miting de avance in Mandaluyong four days before the 2016 elections, when he ran for the vice presidency.

The original photo, captured by Agence France-Presse photojournalist Ted Aljibe, shows Marcos extending his arms wide as red and pink confetti rained on the stage during the final campaign event on May 5, 2016. The photo accompanied a Los Angeles Time article the next day.

The old photo was uploaded this month alongside images of motorcycle riders in the northern Luzon province as they held a caravan in support of the former senator’s presidential bid. It was captioned, in part, “we are making history for #BBM! this is history in Cagayan Valley!”

The photo surfaced the same day Marcos supporters organized a motorcycle caravan near the Magapit Suspension Bridge in the municipality of Lal-lo in Cagayan. Four of the other photos featured in the two FB pages’ posts came from a report by local news outlet The Northern Forum – Cagayan Valley on the event.

The erroneous posts by Batang Marcos (created in Oct. 25, 2016) and Solid BBM Supporters Region 2 (created last Nov. 15) got over 14,500 interactions, with the photo of Marcos surrounded by confetti collectively getting over 2,600 interactions from both pages.

Among the top traffic generators of posts were public FB groups BBM Supporters Batangas Chapter, BBM Sarah Solid Supporter, and PGMC Finance.


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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.)