A Facebook post claims without basis that the #PampangaIsPink rally of VP Leni Robredo and her slate was bloated.
CLAIM: The 220,000-crowd estimate of the people’s rally of Vice President Leni Robredo at San Fernando Pampanga is bloated.
RATING: FALSE
A Facebook post has claimed that the crowd estimate for the grand rally of Vice President Leni Robredo and running mate Sen. Kiko Pangilinan in San Fernando Pampanga, Saturday, April 9, 2022, was bloated.
The Facebook page Bored Productive claimed on Sunday, April 10, that based on its “estimate,” only about 41,000 came out for “Manalakaran Pampangan” or #PampangaIsPink campaign rally.
The post further claimed that the “capacity” of the open grounds of the Robinsons Star Mills mall was “approximately 41,000.” The post did not provide any clear formula, calculation, or basis for its claim aside from two aerial pictures of the venue and the crowd divided into several quadrants with their respective “full capacity” estimates.
Bored Productive’s estimate is without basis.
The Philippine Star, Inquirer.net, and Rappler.com reported the same 220,000 crowd estimates for the #PampangaIsPink rally, based on estimates provided by the local organizers and the police.
The crowd estimate was close to the calculation of crowd estimation website mapchecking.com, which estimated the crowd, based on the venue’s area (500,000 to 600,000 sq.ft.) to be around 262,970. This was based on a five people per square meter assumption.
Journalists often cross-check event crowd estimates from organizers with the local police, who are trained to give official estimates for events.
However, the Police Regional Office 3 on Monday released a statement clarifying that it did not release official crowd estimates for the recent Leni-Kiko grand rally.
“Police regional office 3-regional public information office has not released any official statement on said event as to the number of attendees and other details on said convention,” the statement said. “The PNP remains apolitical and non-partisan.”
The police regional office emphasized that the personnel at the event were deployed “solely to ensure public safety and security.”
The province of Pampanga is considered a bailiwick of former president Gloria Arroyo. Robredo was defeated in the province in the 2016 election, but her supporters vowed to do better in the May 2022 polls. – Ryan Christopher J. Sorote
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