A video making the rounds on social media claims former vice president Leni Robredo was evicted from Harvard University. Not true.
“Robredo remains a Hauser leader, and continues to be a part of the Center for Public Leadership community. Any claims to the contrary are false,” Clayton McCleskey, Director of Communications & External Relations for Harvard University’s Center for Public Leadership, told VERA Files Fact Check via email.
On Nov. 13, FB page Philippines News Live and Robin Sweet Showbiz posted the false video bearing the headline:
“LENI EVICTED SA HARVARD? PBBM IMBITADO SA WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM KAHIT DI EKONOMISTA! LENI NAGWALA?”
(Leni evicted from Harvard? PBBM was invited to the World Economic Forum despite not being an economist! Leni outraged?)
Without citing any source, the male narrator reported that Robredo’s stint at Harvard was shortened from “three months” to just a month.
She belongs to the cohort of Hauser Leaders at the university’s Kennedy School of Government for the fall 2022 semester. She started her stint on Oct. 11. The School’s academic calendar shows that the fall semester will end in December.
In an Oct. 31 Facebook (FB) post, Robredo said it was her last week of classroom work and student consultations. She will be delivering speeches at Harvard until mid-December.
Another part of the video’s headline claimed that Robredo “went wild” after hearing that Marcos, though not an economist, was invited to the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s annual meeting.
Robredo has not made such a reaction in any of her official social media accounts. It is also not true that the WEF invites only economists to its annual meeting.
Every year, political, business, and societal leaders join the by invitation-only meeting at Davos, Switzerland, to discuss economic, social, and political issues. Among the non-economist individuals previously invited to Davos were Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg, British composer Sir Elton John, and former U.S. president Donald Trump.
Philippines News Live (created on May 4, 2021)’s video got 38,608 interactions, while Robin Sweet Showbiz (created on July 25, 2017)’s post garnered 21,100 interactions. Both videos appeared after WEF founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab invited Marcos to the annual meeting set on Jan. 16 to 20, 2023.
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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.)
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