This is not a photograph of a senator in a swimming costume -- it is another Filipino woman
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on August 19, 2019 at 09:30
- 3 min read
- By AFP Philippines
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This post contains a “before and after” image that purports to show Elago before and after she became a lawmaker representing the Kabataan youth party.
Below is a screenshot of the post:
The post, when translated to English, says: “Just like Risa. When she was appointed to Philhealth she suddenly changed. This is what Sarah Elago of Kabataan party-list is now boasting about, Sarah Elago who they were looking for in the Senate. Before she was always on the streets, now she’s gallivanting on the beaches. She couldn’t even face the parents of the young people whom their group, a front of the terrorist bandits NPA, has brainwashed”.
Risa refers to Senator Ana Theresia ‘Risa’ Hontiveros, who served as board member of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation before her election in 2016. She was jeered on social media, for example here, for supposedly undergoing a drastic transformation after she was appointed to PhilHealth.
Elago was elected a lawmaker in 2016. She is a representative of the Kabataan youth party.
Elago was invited to a Senate hearing on August 7 about minors who allegedly went missing after being recruited by leftist parties. She did not attend, citing prior commitments.
The photo in the misleading post was first uploaded to Facebook by Jay Sonza -- a supporter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and former broadcaster -- alongside a claim it showed Elago.
In the post, he said the senator who missed the August 7 hearing has been spending her time on the beach. That post has since been taken down.
A post with a similar claim was also put up on Facebook here.
A woman named Kathe Luna confronted Sonza on Facebook for using her photo.
As her post below shows, Luna first replied to Sonza in a comment on his misleading post, then wrote an additional comment in a Facebook post of her own.
In her initial Filipino-language reply to Sonza -- which can be seen on the lower right of the post in capital letters -- Kathe labels him as “shameless”, says she feels violated by his actions and threatens to launch legal action against him.
Her status in Filipino language translates as: “Jay Sonza no one deserves to be violated like this! You should have used what you studied for and your media background for the welfare of people and not to destroy them! You did not even double or triple check to make sure that you posted a photo of the right person! You violated my womanhood with the comments of your offensive followers who are just like you! You are destroying the peaceful life of a private person! I hope you are happy with your trending post and may God bless you. #GodblessyouJaySonza”
The photo used in the misleading posts first appeared in Luna’s Facebook account on July 14 here. The post is shown below:
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