A widely-shared online post headlined “LEADING SI BONGBONG, WALANG DENIAL ANG PET (Bongbong is leading, no denial from PET),” is merely an opinion piece.
Forum Philippines, a blog authored by Boyet Antonio, said in a Feb. 8 article that he observed the rising number of “posts in Facebook groups” announcing former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s “lead” over Vice President Leni Robredo in the ongoing vice presidential vote recount. He does not elaborate on the said online posts.
He then alluded to the fact that neither the Supreme Court – sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) – nor Robredo’s camp is denying the pronouncements on social media.
Antonio’s article could have reached over 2.2 million people, with traffic to the opinion piece coming largely from the pro-Marcos pages BBM for Peace, Unity & Progress, MARCOS LOYALIST, and BongBong Marcos United.
Among the captions written by some of the pages that shared it were:
- “Kung ganun huwag ng patagalin declare na sya now na!! Inip na kami gusto na naming sumigaw ng BBM!BBM!BBM! OUR TRUE VICE PRESIDENT (If that’s the case, then don’t prolong it: declare him now! We’re tired of waiting, we just want to shout BBM!BBM!BBM! Our true vice president) !!! ”
- “THE REAL VICE PRESIDENT ELECT BY THE FILIPINO PEOPLE #BBM”
The opinion blog post was published about two weeks after the PET announced it was nearing the end of its review of ballots from the pilot testing provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Occidental.
The recount is a result of an electoral protest filed by Marcos in June 2016, contesting Robredo’s narrow 263,000-win over him.
Forum Philippines has been publishing stories since September 2012.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
