An old fabricated quote card of President Rodrigo Duterte where he supposedly expressed support for former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is making the rounds on Facebook.
The fake infographic, shared by a netizen on public Facebook group MARCOS LOYALIST on Oct. 11, quoted Duterte as saying:
“I know…Bongbong will win. Respect him. Love him. Matinong tao si Bongbong (Bongbong is a sensible person).”
A reverse image search shows the fabricated quote card was posted as early as May 12, 2016, three days after the presidential elections. It was published on Instagram by an account that carried various political content in favor of Marcos and against then candidate Leni Robredo. The account was only active for a month — the first post was on May 10, 2016 and the last on June 9, 2016.
A search of the quote on the Web yielded no results. No legitimate news organization reported that Duterte uttered the fabricated quote during the campaign period in 2016.
The photo of Duterte in the fabricated infographic was lifted from a March 19, 2016 poster by verified Facebook page Duterte Cayetano, the “official Facebook page of the Duterte-Cayetano tandem,” in the 2016 presidential elections. The poster advertised the second presidential debate for the 2016 polls. House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano ran as Duterte’s vice-president.
The fake quote resurfaced on Twitter in 2018, days after Duterte said he would resign if Marcos won his electoral protest against Robredo.
A year later, it again resurfaced just days before the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), was expected to come out with its preliminary decision on the vote recount in the contested 2016 vice-presidential race. Marcos Jr. filed a protest against Vice President Leni Robredo’s win.
The Supreme Court instead only announced on Oct. 15 the release of the report on the “revision and appreciation of ballots in the three pilot provinces” for Marcos’ and Robredo’s camp to comment on.
The fake quote card posted this October could have reached over 75 million social media users, with traffic largely coming from pages Alabanzas Cristianas, REMEDIOS CASEROS and REMEDIOS CASEROS Y MEDICINAS NATURALES.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
