This photo of a Philippine communist rebel has been doctored to insert Sarah Elago’s image

The photo appears in this graphic shared on Facebook on December 7, 2020. 

On the left, the graphic shows photos of two reported youth members of the rebel group New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). 

On the right are photos of Sarah Elago, who represents a youth party in the Philippine Congress, including one that purports to show her in NPA uniform.

"Busted! Two child members of the terrorist CPP-NPA exposed the truth," the Tagalog-language text overlaid in the graphic reads. "Sarah Elago CPP-NPA recruiter of the youth!"

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A screenshot of the misleading post, taken on February 11, 2021

An identical photo purporting to show Elago in NPA uniform was also shared on Facebook here, here and here.

The photo, however, has been doctored.

Google reverse image and keyword searches found the original photo was published by the Associated Press (AP) news agency on November 23, 2016 in this report that identifies the NPA rebel as “Comrade Katryn”.

The AP photo is captioned: “In this photo taken Nov. 23, 2016, a 24-year-old New People's Army guerrilla, who uses the nom de guerre Comrade Katryn, smiles as she talks to reporters at a rebel encampment tucked in the harsh wilderness of the Sierra Madre mountains southeast of Manila, Philippines.”

The photo was digitally altered to insert Elago’s image, taken from a Facebook post she published on May 4, 2016. 

Below is a set of screenshot comparisons showing the doctored image (L) and its corresponding source photos (R) with identifying marks circled:

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Screenshots comparing the doctored image (left) and genuine photos (right)

Elago is a frequent target of online posts accusing her of association with communism, a claim she has repeatedly denied.

AFP previously debunked an image circulating that appeared to show Elago wearing a hammer-and-sickle headscarf. The image had in fact been doctored.

In December, she filed a complaint against several officials of a Philippine anti-communist task force, accusing them of peddling "false news” in an attempt to "red-tag" her.

"Red-tagging" is the practice of branding activists and environmental groups as rebels or communist sympathisers in an attempt to discredit them.

A report by watchdog Global Witness in July warned the practice was part of a broader global trend to delegitimise activists under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has come down heavily on government critics.