A video of a priest’s homily was spliced together with clips of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s campaign rallies to make it seem he was speaking in favor of the former senator.
The edited three-minute video showed a clip of Fr. Joseph Franz Dizon of the Diocese of Malolos telling mass goers about the characteristics of a good leader, which was juxtaposed with footage of Marcos at Uniteam campaign events.
Above it was text that read: “hindi lahat ng taong simbahan ay kakampink (not all members of the church are kakampink),” referring to supporters of Marcos’ rival in the 2022 presidential race, Vice President Leni Robredo. The video appeared on Facebook and TikTok on March 3.
The video posts, which continue to circulate as of publishing, are wrong. Dizon did not refer to Marcos, Robredo, or any other candidate in his message.
The homily clip was grabbed from a video that the priest uploaded on his YouTube channel Sa Madaling Salita on Oct. 17, 2021.
Responding to earlier attempts of “stealing” and “cutting” his video to be used as “propaganda for a particular candidate,” Dizon issued a statement on Nov. 21, 2021, where he denied referencing a specific candidate:
“Kung papanuorin ang buong pagninilay, hindi ito patungkol kay VP Leni Robredo o sinumang kandidato kagaya ng sinasabi ng iba. Ito ay mga tagubilin para sa mga botante na maging mapanuri ayon sa mga katangian na panukala ng Salita ng Diyos,” he said.
(If you watch the whole reflection, it’s not about VP Leni Robredo or any candidate like what others are saying. These are reminders for voters to be critical using as basis the characteristics proposed by the Word of God.)
Netizens who thought the circulating video was in support of Marcos gave praise and said “amen.”
The edited FB clip also carried a shoutout to Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani Jr. and other priests who had expressed sentiment against voting for Marcos. In February, Bacani, a spiritual adviser for the Catholic charismatic movement El Shaddai, said the Uniteam endorsement made by El Shaddai head Mike Velarde was a personal one rather than representative of the group.
The false video garnered a total of 4.89 million interactions on FB, while its TikTok version uploaded by the account @samuelcardenas669, garnered almost 311,700 interactions. These videos emerged the same day the camp of presidential candidate Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso questioned the presence of pink Robredo campaign materials inside a Catholic church.
Similar copies of the edited video were posted by six Facebook pages, three FB users, two FB groups, and two Youtube pages since Nov. 1, 2021, getting almost 4.84 million total interactions collectively.
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