Fabricated quote drags tennis star Eala into Philippine political turmoil
- Published on August 5, 2026 at 11:28
- 3 min read
- By Ara EUGENIO, AFP Philippines
Philippine tennis star Alex Eala's historic triumph at the Washington Open triggered speculation online about her political leanings, but posts claiming she publicly expressed disgust for Vice President Sara Duterte share a fabricated graphic. There is no record of Eala making the remarks in the circulating graphic, which mimics the style of quote cards produced by broadcaster GMA News.
"I never wore a green outfit to support VP Sara, that's a big no for me," reads the graphic shared on Facebook on August 2, 2026.
The post -- shared over 200 times -- features a photo of Eala wearing a green visor and shirt, alongside a date stamp reading July 31 and a web address that purportedly links to a news page.
The webpage displays a "Website Expired" notice when clicked.
"She seems really disgusted," says the caption.
Similar claims spread widely on Facebook as Eala was making a breakthrough run at the WTA and ATP Washington Open, upsetting former world number one Naomi Osaka to reach the women's singles final against world number three Jessica Pegula (archived link).
She has since capped her giant-killing campaign by defeating Pegula to become the first player from the Philippines to win a WTA Tour title (archived link).
Eala's green outfit prompted speculation among some social media users about the political significance of her choice of attire.
Green is a colour commonly associated with Duterte, whose political future hangs in the balance as an impeachment trial in the Senate could strip her of the vice presidency and permanently bar her from elected office (archived link).
"Even without her support, Sara will still win," one user commented, suggesting they believed Eala had publicly addressed the rumours and distanced herself from Duterte.
Another wrote: "But at least it's green, not red," referring to the colour associated with President Ferdinand Marcos, Duterte's former ally turned political rival.
However, there are no official reports that Eala made the purported remark.
When asked by sports journalist Dyan Castillejo about her outfit, the young tennis star said she had been given several colour options and chose green, adding that she was glad people liked it (archived link).
She made no reference to Duterte or her political leanings in the interview.
AFP reached out to Eala's team for comment, but a response was not forthcoming.
'Not true'
A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found the falsely shared graphic bearing the "QNA News" branding was originally posted on August 2 by the account "Filipino Tots That Matter", which has previously shared misinformation debunked by AFP.
The caption portrayed Eala as distancing herself from politics and Duterte.
Although it bears a "QNA News" watermark, the graphic closely resembles quote cards produced by Philippine broadcaster GMA News.
AFP found no record of the purported quote on GMA News's official platforms (archived link).
The broadcaster also refuted the graphic's authenticity on August 2 (archived link).
"Warning: A fake post using a logo and template resembling those of GMA News is circulating online," GMA News said on Facebook.
"The quote attributed to Alex Eala in the poster is not true," it added.
Apart from the different logo, the graphic uses a different presentation of publication details and lacks the contextual line beneath Eala's name that typically accompanies quotes in genuine GMA News graphics (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked misinformation about Eala.
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