Vice President Leni Robredo is vying for the country’s top post in the 2022 polls, as opposed to a viral video’s claim that she has “backed out” from next year’s presidential race and will instead run for a local post in Camarines Sur.
Robredo officially declared her presidential run on the morning of Oct. 7 and filed her certificate of candidacy a few hours later.
The erroneous video was published on Oct. 1, a day after Robredo was nominated by an opposition coalition as its presidential bet in next year’s elections.
It was published by Showbiz Fanaticz, a YouTube channel that repeatedly publishes disinformation. It carried the title “JUST IN: VP LENI, UMURONG NA SA PAGTAKBO BILANG PRESIDENTE SA 2022?? | NATAKOT NGA BA KAY BBM (VP Leni already backed out from the 2022 presidential race? Did she get scared of BBM)?!” It continued to circulate almost a week after it was posted.
“BBM” refers to former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who is also aspiring for the presidency. He narrowly lost to Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential race.
Showbiz Fanaticz’s untrue 6-minute clip was reuploaded on Facebook (FB) by the pro-administration page Duterte News Info, where it got over a million views.
In its false post, the YouTube channel twisted a Sept. 30 Inquirer.net article about Robredo being nominated as 1Sambayan’s presidential bet.
A narrator read the final portion of the report, where the vice president was said to be in discussion with other presidential aspirants to form a united opposition, and said this was “confirmation that she will never run for president in the upcoming elections.”
It also erroneously claimed that reports of the vice president transferring her voter registration from Naga City to Magarao municipality in Camarines Sur meant she would run for a local position.
Showbiz Fanaticz’s spurious video has received nearly 180,000 views, while Duterte News Info’s copy garnered over 61,300 engagements from netizens.
Showbiz Fanaticz joined YouTube in November 2017, while Duterte News Info was created in December 2020.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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