Broadcast error fuels Philippine poll fraud claims

"God Comelec! It's Atty.Vic's name but Bam's face?" reads a Facebook post shared May 13, 2025, referring to candidate Vic Rodriguez and newly elected Senator Bam Aquino.

"Did you swap their votes? You panicked while switching votes so you made this mistake?"

The post includes a news graphic titled: "Bilang Pilipino 2025 Senatorial Race". It depicts votes received by six Senate bets.

However, the pictures and names do not match. The candidate ranked first, for example, has incumbent Senator Christopher Go's photo but is labelled Willie Revillame.

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken May 15, 2025

Similar posts rocketed across Facebook and TikTok a day after the archipelago nation's mid-term vote, which was largely defined by the explosive feud between President Ferdinand Marcos and impeached Vice President Sara Duterte (archived link).

The dozen senators chosen nationally will form half the jury in Duterte's July trial that could see her permanently barred from public office (archived link).

Comments on the posts indicate some people believed the graphic was proof Comelec rigged the votes.

"Comelec's deception busted," one reads.

Another says "Garcia must be held accountable," referring to poll body chairman George Garcia.

A keyword search on Google for "Bilang Pilipino 2025" found the faulty graphic in News5's live election night broadcast on Facebook (archived link).

AFP reviewed the original segment before it was edited out of the larger live stream. According to the anchors, the graphic showed unofficial results, with 58.89 percent of votes transmitted.

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Screenshot of the faulty graphic from News5's broadcast taken May 14, 2025

Local media ABS-CBN and GMA News also aired the results around the same time. The top six candidates and their corresponding votes are consistent with the pictures and tallies in News5's graphic (archived here and here).

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Screenshot comparison of the false post with the News5 graphic (L) and election results aired by GMA News

News5 has since apologised for the name mix-up, which it attributed to a "graphics error".

"For a few seconds at around 9:15 p.m., we showed a tally of the partial, unofficial results for the senatorial contest that had the correct ranking and photos of candidates. The names, however, did not match," the broadcaster said in a Facebook statement published May 15 (archived link).

"Measures will be taken so that this does not happen again."

AFP has debunked more election-related misinformation in the Philippines here.