This graphic has been doctored to include a false quote from Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 6, 2020 at 11:30
2 min read
By AFP Philippines

A graphic has been shared more than a hundred times in multiple posts on Facebook alongside a claim it contains a quote by Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo about motorcycle passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The claim is false; the graphic has been digitally altered from an original graphic that made no reference to motorcycle-riding; Robredo’s office disowned the purported quote.

The graphic was published here on Facebook on August 3, 2020. It has been shared more than 160 times.

A screenshot of the misleading post taken on August 5, 2020

The Tagalog-language text in the graphic translates to English as: "I too am against barriers on motorcycles, perhaps I can advise passengers to ride backwards so that there is no need for such barriers. / LENI ROBREDO / Vice President of the Philippines”.

The post’s caption reads: “What? I don’t understand. The passenger rides backwards? How?”

The post circulated online as the Philippines updated its COVID-19 restriction measures to allow motorcycles to carry passengers under “certain conditions”, while public transportation remains suspended in many areas.

The same graphic was also shared on Facebook here, here, here and here, alongside a similar claim.

The claim is false.

Robredo’s office denied the vice president ever made the purported remarks, saying in a statement published on Facebook on August 4 that the graphic contains a “FAKE QUOTE”.

“There is no truth in the purported quote by VP Leni that is circulating [online] about the government-implemented motorcycle barrier requirement. Again, this is a clear attempt to deceive and harm -- part of an endless campaign of lies against the Vice President,” the statement read.

Below is a screenshot of the statement, which shows the misleading post stamped “FAKE”:

Screenshot of statement

A combined reverse image and keyword search on Google found the graphic has been doctored from this original image published on the Facebook account of Unang Hirit, a long-running Philippine television show, on July 30, 2020.

The quote in the original graphic states: “We must streamline how we collect data on COVID-19. Once this is done, we can then strengthen the decisions, policies and programs we implement to contain the spread of the virus. The pandemic cannot be stopped by just waiting for a vaccine. We need to stop its spread as quickly as possible.”

Below is a screenshot comparison showing the graphic in the misleading posts (L) and the Unang Hirit graphic (R):

Screenshot comparison

The quote in the Unang Hirit graphic corresponds to portions of remarks Robredo made about COVID-19 on July 29, 2020. She makes no mention of the government’s motorcycle-riding policy during the address.

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