An online post implying Vice President and Liberal Party (LP) chair Leni Robredo and select opposition lawmakers are running in the May 2019 midterm elections is misleading.
In a Feb. 9 post, a netizen published on Facebook group CRUELTY OF NOYNOY “ABNOY” AQUINO AND HIS GOVERNMENT a collage of individual photos of Robredo, senators Antonio Trillanes IV, Franklin Drilon, Risa Hontiveros, Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Leila de Lima, and representatives Edcel Lagman and Gary Alejano.
It bore two sets of captions:
“HUWAG MAGPALOKO ULI!” and “HUWAG IBOTO MULI! SALOT SA LIPUNAN. AYAW NILA ANG MAMAMAYAN UMUNLAD SILA LANG ANG UUNLAD!”
(DON’T BE FOOLED AGAIN! and DON’T VOTE FOR THEM AGAIN! PLAGUE OF SOCIETY. THEY ONLY WANT PROGRESS FOR THEMSELVES NOT ALL CITIZENS!)
Only three out of the nine incumbent officials in the misleading photo are running in the upcoming polls: reelectionist Aquino and Magdalo Party List Rep. Alejano for senate, and reelectionist Lagman for Albay 1st District representative. All three are running under LP.
Vice President Robredo is serving a six-year term until 2022. She is caught in an ongoing election protest against ex-senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. who lost in the 2016 polls by a slim margin of 263,473 votes.
Drilon, Hontiveros, Pangilinan and De Lima are each serving a six-year senatorial term until 2022. De Lima has been in detention since 2017 over drug-related charges.
Trillanes will finish his second consecutive senatorial term this year and is ineligible to run in the midterm polls in May, per Sec. 4, Art. 6 of the Constitution.
The opposition party is fielding eight candidates for senate in the midterm polls, collectively known as “Otso Diretso.”
The misleading Facebook post has garnered some 3,200 shares and could have reached at least 22,500 people.
Created in Jan. 9, 2014, Facebook group CRUELTY OF NOYNOY “ABNOY” AQUINO AND HIS GOVERNMENT has shared a number of false and misleading stories previously verified by VERA Files Fact Check.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
(VERA Files is a part of Tsek.ph, a collaborative fact-checking initiative by the academe and the media for the 2019 Philippine midterm elections.)
