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FACT CHECK PHL Vote 2022

VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Sandro Marcos quote card on imposing taxes on OFWs is FAKE

Fake

A circulating fake quote card claims Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, son of presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., wants to impose taxes on high-income overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

The fake graphic appeared on March 27 and alleged that the young Marcos on Feb. 27 said in his official Facebook (FB) page: “We can impose taxes to our seafarers, nurses and other sectors who are earning a lot in abroad. It is high time that they should also pay their taxes here in the Philippines and not only to their host country.”

This is fake. No legitimate news organization published a report mentioning the exact statement allegedly made by Sandro Marcos, who is running for a seat in the House of Representatives.

In a March 27 Twitter exchange, Marcos told a netizen that the graphic is “fake news.” He added that he never said anything “along [the] lines” of the statement in the fake quote card nor did he ever publish it on his official FB page.

The photo in the untrue quote card was taken from his official FB page.

The fake quote drew criticisms against Marcos for being an “idiot”, with netizens saying his family should first pay the government their estate tax worth P203 billion before “burdening” OFWs.

#VERAfied: Sandro Marcos quote card on imposing taxes on OFWs is FAKE

The quote card emerged a couple of days after the proclamation rally of the Team Marcos slate in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.

The circulating quote card was published by at least 32 FB groups and pages. It has garnered more than 8,480 interactions, according to social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle. Its top traffic generators are FB pages No to Marcos forever in politics (created on June 17, 2014), Choose Common Sense. Vote For Leni-Kiko 2022 (Nov. 21, 2021) and a netizen.

 

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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.)