A video with a headline suggesting that three public officials eyeing national posts in next year’s elections have been disqualified is making the rounds on social media. This is false.
“KAKAPASOK LANG (JUST IN) PRES DUTERTE BBM PACQUIAO MAYOR ISKO LENI DISQUALIFIED 1” is the headline of a video uploaded on Sept. 18 by the YouTube channel NEWSFILES, but its content says something else.
No disqualification cases have been filed against Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao or Manila City Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, who have both announced plans to run as president in the May 2022 polls.
Vice President Leni Robredo merely expressed readiness to contest the top post if she is chosen as the united opposition’s candidate.
The content of the eight-minute video did not substantiate its headline. It featured instead reports from the Sept. 17 and 18 newscasts of Bombo Radyo and two monologues by pro-Duterte social media personality Jam Magno.
The false clip began with a disqualification case unrelated to the three public officials, and President Rodrigo Duterte and former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, who were also mentioned in the headline.
It was a Bombo Radyo story on National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. saying that progressive partylists Gabriela and Kabataan may be disqualified from running in 2022.
The rest of the reports were about:
- Robredo saying she is prepared to run against Marcos if they were the only candidates for the same position;
- the preparations of Pacquiao’s party for a convention;
- a group of Moreno’s supporters urging him to run for president in 2022; and
- a party filing an estafa case against one of its former officers.
Meanwhile, Magno criticized Moreno and Pacquiao separately in her two clips.
NEWSFILES’s false post has so far received over 149,000 views. A copy of the video put on loop was uploaded by the Facebook (FB) page Duterte News Info on Sept. 19, where it has been viewed over 1.1 million times.
The comments section of the FB post was filled with statements of support for Marcos. Other top comments criticized Robredo and said that the “disqualification” of Pacquiao and Moreno was “very good news.”
The false video emerged after the political party Partido Federal ng Pilipinas in a Sept. 18 resolution endorsed Marcos as its presidential bet.
NEWSFILES was created on Dec. 12, 2012. Duterte News Info joined FB on Dec. 4, 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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