An online post claiming to show visual proof of election fraud benefitting Vice President Leni Robredo in the 2016 polls is false.
The concocted Facebook post was published on March 2 by the page Pres. Ferdinand Emmanuel E. Marcos. It carried a photoshopped copy of Robredo’s October 2016 PeopleAsia magazine cover photo juxtaposed with the text, “Robredo takes a swipe at the Marcoses for their ill-gotten wealth. She conveniently forgets about her ill-gotten votes.”
Below the Robredo graphic were three photos of what appear to be election ballots spread on the floor, being filled out by civilians. Each photo carried a logo of the Robredo-led Liberal Party, and carried the text, “Actual photos of massive election fraud in favor of Leni.”
No state authority has ruled on fraud allegations against Robredo. The Supreme Court, sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal, is still recounting votes between the vice president and former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who contested her victory in the 2016 vice presidential race.
The supposed poll fraud photos have been circulating on social media for the past 11 months, beginning with a netizen’s April 4, 2018 tweet to ABS-CBN reporter Ina Reformina, who said that an unnamed source that day reported unused ballots were discovered in Camarines Sur bearing shaded votes for Robredo.
Robredo has called the set of photos “fake news” in a tweet on April 22, 2018.
Pres. Ferdinand Emmanuel E. Marcos’ false post was published four days after Marcos’ sister, senatorial candidate and Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, faced criticism after a report from Princeton University’s student publication The Daily Princetonian contradicted her statement that she graduated from the university.
The false post has received almost 3,000 reactions and has been shared over 3,600 times.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
