Unregistered farm product not promoted by famous Philippine doctor

"Effective solution to the weed problem," reads a Facebook post shared on August 29.

The post features an image of Dr Willie Ong -- a popular doctor with millions of followers on social media -- appearing to stand next to boxes of "RedMagic Organic Herbicides".

A picture that appears to show a registration certificate with the name and logo of the agriculture department's Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority also features in the post.

A link to an online store for the product is included in the caption, where it is described as "effective against weed regrowth for 12 months".

Farming products including herbicides are popular in the archipelago, where over 40 percent of the land mass is devoted to agriculture.

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Screenshot of false post taken on September 12, 2023

The product was also promoted in Facebook posts here, here and here. A label shown on the bottle lists castor oil as the only active ingredient.

Comments on the social media posts suggested people were interested in purchasing the product.

"How do I avail of this?" one asked.

"How many milliliters of this should I mix with 16 liters of water?" another said.

Fabricated endorsement

However, Ong's purported endorsement of the product had been fabricated.

A reverse image search followed by keyword searches on Facebook found the original photo shared in a post on his verified account on January 10, 2022. (archived link).

The Tagalog-language caption says the photo shows the arrival of an "additional 1,000 courses of Molnupiravir," an antiviral medicine for Covid-19.

The photo in false posts has been altered to show bottles of "RedMagic Organic Herbicides".

Below is a screenshot comparison of Ong's altered image (left) and the original (right):

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Doctored image of Ong (left) and original photo (right)

Ong has been repeatedly targeted by misinformation debunked by AFP here, here and here.

"There are so many scams using my name, as well as other celebrities. If you see ads like that, almost all of them are fake," he said in a video message on April 18 (archived link).

He said the only product he endorses is a brand of milk for elderly people.

He previously told AFP: "If an advertisement does not come out of my Facebook page, then we are not endorsing it."

Fake product registration

Keyword searches on the database of registered products of the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA), a government agency that regulates the use of fertilizers and pesticides in the archipelago did not find a listing for "RedMagic Organic Herbicides" (archived link).

Furthermore, the product's purported FPA certification bears an eight-digit registration number -- but actual product registration details in the agency's official files are at least 10 digits.

"The certificate of product registration [in the post] is questionable and does not conform with the FPA certificate," Maribel Querijero, chief agriculturist of the agency's Pesticide Regulations Division told AFP on September 6.

The agency had earlier issued a warning to farmers in June against buying the product as it is not registered (archive link).

Dr Charito Medina, founding member of MASIPAG, a network of farmer-scientists in the Philippines, said this product "looks like a fake, and a scam" (archived links here and here).

"There is no scientific data that shows castor oil can eliminate any living plants," he told AFP on September 11.

He added that there is no herbicide that can prevent weeds from regrowing for 12 months, as claimed in the posts.

"If that were true, then it means there must be something very toxic in this product," Medina said.