This photo does not show Philippine opposition party members 'mourning' their 2019 election results – it was taken in 2017

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on August 5, 2019 at 07:30
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP Philippines

Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.

A photo of members of a Philippine opposition party wearing black has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook alongside a claim it shows them mourning the party’s poor performance in the 2019 senatorial elections. The claim is false; the photo shows the group at a rally in 2017 to commemorate the 1986 revolution which toppled then dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The photo was published here on Facebook on May 13, 2019. It has been shared more than 400 times.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

Screenshot of Facebook post

The post’s Tagalog-language caption translates to English as: “Black is the new color of the Yellows and Otso Diretso looks like they're mourning now because they're having a hard time entering the top 12”.

The photo shows members and officials of the Liberal party, the main opposition party in the Philippines, clad in black. 

Senators Risa Hontiveros, Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan and former Philippine president Benigno Aquino are seen sitting at a table in the photo. Singer and Liberal Party supporter Jim Paredes can be seen talking to Aquino. 

“Yellows” refer to the supporters and allies of the Liberal Party; yellow has been identified as their political colour. 

Otso Diretso refers to an alliance of political parties in the Philippines which lost to parties supporting President Rodrigo Duterte in May 2019 elections. Here is an AFP report about the polls.

The photo was also shared here on Facebook with an identical claim. 

The claim is false; the photo shows the opposition party members attending a rally in 2017 to commemorate the 1986 People Power revolution, which removed Marcos from power.

A reverse search on Google found the photo published in this tweet dated February 25, 2017 by DJ Yap, a reporter for local news site Inquirer.net:

The caption of the tweet states: “Now here: former President Aquino, other Liberals, Senators Pangilinan, Drilon, Hontiveros of Akbayan”.

Yap’s tweets on that day reported on a protest held in commemoration of the 31st anniversary of the 1986 People Power revolution.

National news site GMA News tweeted a similar photo of the opposition politicians at the event here on February 25, 2017:

This AFP report published on February 25, 2017 gives more details on the protest.

Two of of Yap's other tweets from the same event, this one and this one, are shown below:

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

Contact us

Next article Previous article