A manipulated video of a five-year-old interview is casting Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo in a negative light.

Rating: ALTERED


A Facebook page supporting presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos is spreading a manipulated video of a five-year-old TV news interview of Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo.

The altered clip makes it appear Robredo had no basis for claiming there were efforts by the Marcos camp to unseat her. Robredo defeated Marcos in the 2016 vice-presidential contest.

The video posted by “ABEL TV,” which originally appeared on the “abel_jan” Tiktok account, is a mere 22 seconds long. The page has a profile picture containing the words “I’m Filipino and my president is BBM (Bongbong Marcos).”

Important context is lost as the original interview with Robredo, conducted by TV Patrol anchor Noli de Castro on Dec. 5, 2016, lasted 5 minutes and 29 seconds. This was after Robredo left the Cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte after being told to stop attending Cabinet meetings.

In the manipulated video, Robredo seemed to have been at a loss for words after being questioned by de Castro on how she would lose a post she was elected to. 

It carried the caption: “ganito yung sinasabi ni prof. clarita carlos na ang pinsan nyang bobo gusto gawing teacher. tas ito naging abogada (This was what Prof. Clarita Carlos said about her stupid cousin who was made a teacher. and this one became a lawyer).” The reference to Carlos pertains to her statements during the SMNI presidential debate on Feb. 15, which Marcos attended but Robredo skipped.

The video of the full TV Patrol interview however shows Robredo stating that the Marcos camp’s electoral protest had no basis.

Last year, the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, dismissed Marcos’ poll protest in a unanimous vote.

Facebook’s rating’s options for third-party fact checkers, adopted by PressONE.PH, defines altered content as “[i]mage, audio, or video content that has been edited or synthesized beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that could mislead people.”

ABEL TV’s altered video has been viewed at least 15,600 times on Facebook alone, shared 296 times, and commented on 125 times.

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