Archive - Claims by Public Figures

Issues involving the West Philippine Sea, the South China Sea and China were among the topics most frequently debunked by VERA Files in 2023, accounting for almost a sixth (71) of 410 fact-check articles published from Jan. 1 to Dec. 8.

Sa isyu ng disinformation sa agrikultura, nakapag-monitor ang VERA Files Fact Check ng 15 pahayag ng mga opisyal ng gobyerno at online posts. Labintatlo rito ay tungkol sa bigas at siyam ang direktang tumutukoy sa pagpapababa ng presyo nito.

Political doublespeak: omission, diversion and confusion, characterized President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s first full year in office. More than half of his claims in 2023 lacked context, were flip-flops, or misleading.

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In the social media landscape this year, disinformation peddlers sketched an image of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as a decisive leader who fired errant officials and as a figure sought by foreign leaders for his wealth.

From clickbait headlines of videos to patently false claims, the allegations that he fired several errant government officials, withdrew wealth from foreign countries or that the Maharlika Fund will collate national wealth and pay the country’s debts all seemed to prop up President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s image.

Misleading claims of former president Rodrigo Duterte on the jurisdiction of the ICC continued to haunt the disinformation landscape in 2023 even as the current administration now considers cooperating in the tribunal’s ongoing probe into the bloody drug war.

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This makes Marcos one of the many public figures who have made misleading claims in asserting the Philippines’ “non-cooperation” to the ICC’s probe of the Duterte administration’s drug war.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte has claimed that the NTF-ELCAC was a “very successful” initiative of the AFP in reducing the number of communist insurgents. This needs context.

Reacting to recent discussions in the House of Representatives about cooperating with the ICC in its investigation of the previous administration’s war on drugs, Vice President Sara Duterte echoed claims on the ICC jurisdiction that lack context.

From saying in August 2022 that the Philippines “has no intention” of rejoining the ICC, Marcos now says the Philippines’ return to the Netherlands-based tribunal is “under study.”