Imposter govt website spreads fabricated poll ahead of Philippine midterm vote

"Survey result for 2025 gubernatorial race on Bukidnon, Philippines," reads the title of a graphic shared on Instagram on February 19, 2025.

It appears to show Azucena Huervas, currently the mayor of the province's Valencia city, ahead of four rival candidates including incumbent Governor Rogelio Roque.

"Good evening Bukidnon, this is a post from Radyo Pilipinas, an official survey," the Visayan-language caption to the graphic says, referring to the state-run radio station (archived link).

The post links to website claiming to be Radyo Pilipinas News.

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Screenshot of false Instagram post captured on February 24, 2025

Similar posts surfaced on Facebook as campaigning kicked off for the archipelago's Senate and candidates for so-called party-list seats.

Electioneering will kick into higher gear in March when candidates for House seats and thousands of local positions launch their bids for office (archived link).

'Deceitful article'

Radyo Pilipinas, however, has disowned the circulating graphic and branded the supposed survey results as "fake" in a statement on Facebook on February 14 (archived link).

"A deceitful article is spreading on Facebook, pretending to be from Radyo Pilipinas," the statement reads. "Do not be duped -- always verify information from official sources."

The genuine URL of Radyo Pilipinas is radyopilipinas.ph but its imposter site is hosted on a .com page (archived link).

The state radio also changed its logo in December 2024 but the bogus site still features the old one (archived link).

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Screenshot comparison of the imposter site (L) and the official Radyo Pilipinas page

The graphic also contains numerous errors, for example misspelling the nickname of Governor Roque "Oneil" as "Oniel" -- and his party "Partido Federal ng Pilipinas" as "Partido Rederal ng Pilipinas" (archived link).

Azucena Huervas, who the fabricated poll claims is leading the race, separately denounced the circulating posts.

"We do not condone misinformation of any kind," reads a statement on her official Facebook page on February 21 (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked another fake survey that misused the name of local polling organisation.