VERA Files
Two videos on YouTube are erroneously claiming that House Speaker Martin Romualdez has been sent to prison. This is not true. There are no pending criminal cases filed against Romualdez to warrant any detention.
On Feb. 19, these videos appeared and one of them bore the headline:
“KAPAPASOK LANG: OMG! KARMA HABÀNGBÚHÀY ang SINAPIT SAWAKAS KÚL0NG na/ IMEE PINIGILAN ang luha VPSARA
(Just in: OMG, karma! Prison for life. Finally, he’s in jail. [Sen. Imee Marcos] couldn’t stop her tears)”
Showing an image of Romualdez behind bars, the following text on one of the videos’ thumbnails read:
“NASAMPULAN SA KUL0NGAN (sic), ANG PARUSA BITAY (Made an example of in prison, the punishment is death)”
The videos’ headlines used some letters with accent markers in an apparent attempt to avoid keyword detection, which is a disinformation red flag. The content of the video is also unrelated to its false claim, only playing an audio recording of a person criticizing Romualdez for causing tension in Congress.
The video didn’t cite anything related to its headline, thumbnail or manipulated photo showing Romualdez behind bars.
This video emerged a week after both Romualdez and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri shook hands and agreed to stop the word war between the two chambers of Congress. Lawmakers have been trading barbs the past few weeks due to the push to amend the 1987 Constitution through a people’s initiative campaign.
VERA Files Fact Check recently debunked another video with a false claim about the House Speaker. (Read VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Marcos, Senate did NOT tag Romualdez as wanted individual)
The videos were published by YouTube channels BANAT KAPANIG TV (created on Nov. 12, 2021) and TUNAY NA KRITIKO (Jan. 22, 2020), collectively garnering over 105,000 views and 2.500 engagements.
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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.)
