VERA Files
A YouTube video mockingly claimed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed former vice president Leni Robredo as education secretary. This is false.
While Robredo expressed openness to work with the government, she has not been appointed to any position. Marcos, on the other hand, has affirmed his support for Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio.
Uploaded on April 21, the video bore the untrue headline:
“NA-SHOCKED LAHAT PRES MARCOS MATINDING UTOS PIRMA-DO na LENI ROBREDO NEW DepEd SEC na? VP SARA SHOCK
(Everyone was shocked. Pres. Marcos signed an extreme order. Leni Robredo new DepEd Sec? VP Sara was shocked).”
Its thumbnail bore a photo of Marcos supposedly holding a document of Robredo’s appointment along with a text that read: “OMG! DINIKLARA NA! ITO ANG MATINDING UTOS NG PANGULONG MARCOS (Declared already! This is the harsh order of President Marcos).”
Without substantiating its claim, the clickbait video featured a vlogger who in fact questioned calls from netizens for Robredo to replace Duterte-Carpio as DepEd chief amid the growing rift between the Marcos and Duterte families. The vlogger has been previously fact-checked for other misleading and erroneous claims.
Marcos has not appointed Robredo, his closest rival in the 2022 national elections, to any cabinet post. Sara Duterte-Carpio remains as education secretary.
Reverse image search showed that the president’s photo in the thumbnail was edited. The image was a screenshot taken during Marcos’ inauguration speech in 2022 where he was not holding any document.
In an April 24 interview, Marcos said that Duterte-Carpio will stay as DepEd secretary amid calls for her resignation:
“Any of the cabinet secretaries will be replaced kapag hindi nila ginagawa yung trabaho nila. All the other things are not part of the discussion… Kapag hindi talaga marunong o korap, tatanggalin ka talaga namin. Hindi naman ganoon si Inday,”
(Any of the cabinet secretaries will be replaced if they are not doing their jobs. All the other things are not part of the discussion. If they are ineffective or if they are corrupt, they will be removed. Inday [Sara] is not like that).”
Source: ANC 24/7 YouTube channel, “Marcos says Sara-Liza ‘feud’ won’t affect working ties | ANC.” April 24, 2024 (0:37 to 0:56)
The video emerged a week after Robredo attended a forum on April 12 where she said that her organization Angat Buhay hopes to collaborate with the government to improve mental health services in the country.
Uploaded by YouTube channel PINAS TRENDING NOW TV, the video garnered over 5,200 interactions. Facebook users also reposted the link.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
