This photo of Manila’s mayor was taken in 2019, not during the pandemic

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 12, 2021 at 09:23
3 min read
By AFP Philippines

A photo shared on Facebook and YouTube purports to show a Philippine mayor "shooting a film" during the Covid-19 pandemic. The claim is false; the photo was in fact taken in July 2019, months before the pandemic started, when Francisco Domagoso took a tour of the city to check street operations shortly after his election.

The image was posted on Facebook here on July 18.

It shows Francisco Domagoso, the mayor of the Philippine capital Manila, riding a pedicab. He is filmed by a cameraman, circled in red in the image.

“Fill in the blank: _________ is a [TOLONGGES] because after he criticised Mayor Sara’s tour [around the country], he found time to shoot a movie DESPITE THE PANDEMIC", reads the Tagalog-language text describing the photo.

"Tolongges" is street slang for a good-for-nothing person. Domagoso, a former actor, has often used this word in local media interviews.

Screenshot of misleading post taken on August 10, 2021

The image circulated after Domagoso criticised Philippine mayors for "going around the country" to forge alliances in politics during the pandemic.

Although he did not mention specific names, at the time Davao City mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte had travelled to various parts of the country. She defended her trip, saying she had to make a decision "regarding my political career with or without the pandemic".

An opinion poll taken in June shows Duterte and Domagoso are the two most preferred presidential candidates for the 2022 national elections.

The same picture was shared alongside similar claims here on Facebook and here on YouTube.

Comments on the posts suggest that social media users believed Domagoso had also begun travelling around the country.

"Is he starting with his campaign?" asked one.

"DON’T BE FOOLED BY PRETENTIOUS PEOPLE!" said another.

However, the claim is false.

The photo was in fact taken in July 2019, during Domagoso’s first few days as the Philippine capital’s mayor, not during the Covid-19 pandemic, which the World Health Organization officially declared in March 2020.

Reverse image and keyword searches led to this photo published on the website of local news outlet The Daily Tribune on July 11, 2019. It accompanied an article on Domagoso's order to remove signs around the city bearing politicians' names.

The photo was a handout from the Manila City government's office. Public information director, Julius Leonen, told AFP the image was taken by their photographer during an inspection the mayor made around the city.

"This was taken in July 2019. July 10 to be exact. The cameraman [encircled] in the photo is from ABS-CBN," he said.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading post (left) and the photo published by The Daily Tribune (right):

A comparison of the photo in the misleading post and the Manila City government handout

Keyword searches yielded a news segment aired by broadcaster ABS-CBN on July 10, 2019, that shows Domagoso going around the city, checking street "clearing and cleaning" operations. He can be seen on the pedicab in Quiapo, Manila at the video’s one-minute mark.

Other local media outlets such as Rappler, Philippine Star, and Manila Bulletin also published similar photos of Domagoso during the same event on July 10, 2019.

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