Two YouTube videos are claiming that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has kicked out Speaker Martin Romualdez from his post. This is not true. There was no such order from the president, who has no power to remove a legislator from office.
First uploaded on Oct. 19, the video’s headline read:
“KAKAPASOK LANG DIOSKO PO! GRABE NANGYARI KAY HOUSE SPEAKER MARTIN RUMUALDEZ (sic) Malaking Gulo to! VPSARA (Just in. Oh my god! Something terrible happened to House Speaker Martin Romualdez. This is a big mess Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio).”
Its thumbnail also bore this text: “PINABABA SA PWESTO. GRABE! ITO ANG NAKAKABIGLANG UTOS NG PANGULO. RESIGN NOW (Kicked out of his post! Shocking! This is a stunning order from the president. Resign now,” along with photos of Romualdez, Duterte-Carpio and Marcos supposedly holding a document containing such an order.
Marcos never made such a pronouncement. Romualdez, who is also the president’s cousin, remains as House speaker.
Reverse image search also showed that Marcos was not holding any document in the original Agence France-Presse file photo uploaded by Inquirer.net on Jan. 27
The president has no power to remove any member of the House of Representatives, including the speaker. Only House members can elect or remove a speaker via a majority vote.
There has been no move to remove Romualdez from his post.
The video emerged weeks after the House realigned P1.23 billion in confidential and intelligence funds in the proposed 2024 national budget to benefit agencies defending the West Philippine Sea. This includes the P650-million worth of confidential funds from the Office of the Vice President and the education department which are headed by Duterte-Carpio.
Lawmakers from Visayas, Mindanao and the party-list bloc have since affirmed their support for Romualdez after the chamber’s decision to realign confidential funds.
To back its claim, the erroneous video merely played an audio clip from an anonymous narrator urging Marcos to remove Romualdez as speaker.
Uploaded by YouTube channels NEWS PH and WANGBUDISS TV, the videos garnered a total of 18,556 views, 622 likes and 207 comments. Facebook users also reposted the links.
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