No, this is not a photo of a Philippine actress urging voters not to support opposition candidates at the midterms
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on May 15, 2019 at 05:00
- 2 min read
- By AFP Philippines
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The misleading post has been shared over 7,000 times since being posted here and here on May 7.
The photo shows Cynthia Patag, known in the Philippines for her comedic roles, holding a sign that says “ZERO VOTE” written across the faces of eight opposition candidates.
Below is a screenshot of the post:
In a combination of Tagalog and English, the caption in the post reads: “ZERO VOTE, NEVER AGAIN! LET US NOT ALLOW THE Lpigs TO RULE OUR LAND AGAIN!”
“Lpigs” is a reference to the Liberal Party, the main opposition in the Philippines. Here is a link to their website.
The sign also lists the names of eight opposition candidates and highlights certain letters from each name in yellow to spell out “OCHO GAGO”, which when translated to English, means “EIGHT FOOLS”.
The statement at the bottom of the poster, when translated to English, says: “Easy to remember: EIGHT FOOLS”.
“Eight fools” is a play on the name of an opposition alliance called “Otso diretso” (Straight eight). Here is the official website of Otso Diretso.
The Philippines held midterm elections on May 13, 2019. Here is an AFP report on the voting.
AFP searched Patag's official Facebook page and found this photo from April 29, 2019.
In the post, Patag is in the same pose, against the same background and wearing the same clothes, but the sign she is holding is in support of candidates from the Otso Diretso alliance.
Below is a screenshot of the post:
The text on the poster translates to English as: “VOTE STRAIGHT OTSODiRETSO (MATH GRAD). Makalintal. Alejano. Tanada. Hilbay. Gutoc. Roxas. Aquino. Diokno. Let’s bring Straight Eight to the Senate. FIGHT!”
“Math grad” refers to the phrase which is composed from putting together the first letter of the names of the candidates listed on the sign.
The same group of candidates are listed in the same order on the Otso Diretso website here.
Below is a screenshot of the eight candidates from the Otso Diretso website:
AFP has previously debunked a similar claim that Patag had attacked opposition candidates.
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