By Raymund Antonio
Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni “Robredo has belied a post, supposedly quoting her on a statement she made about Filipino fishermen that has been circulating in social media.
Vice President Leni Robredo
(Mark Balmores / MANILA BULLETIN)
Robredo was referring to a post in pesoeconomics.blogspot.com, which came out on June 20, which had her photo and her supposed statement saying: “Bakit pa sa karagatan nangingisda ang mga mangingisda natin (Why does our fishermen catch fish in the sea)?”
Other Facebook pages and netizens have been sharing the post.
The online post circulated a day before Robredo’s scheduled visit to the 22 local fishermen in Occidental Mindoro.
But the Vice President categorically denied issuing the statement, saying the quote was fake.
“Ang statement ko lang patungkol doon iyong statement na nilabas natin sa media. Hindi ako na-interview kahit kailan tungkol doon sa insidente,” she said on her Sunday radio show.
(My only statement was the one released to the media. I was never interviewed about the incident.)
Robredo did not mince words against former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who she accused of being behind the fake news.
“Ito consistent naman ito sa gustong ipalabas. Ano ito, ginawa ito ng kampo ni Marcos mula pa noon na gustong palabasin na bobo tayo,” the former housing chief said.
(The message is consistent. The Marcos camp has been doing this since then to make it appear I’m stupid.)
“Wala namang problema iyong pagpuna, wala namang problema iyong pagtira, pero huwag naman iyong kasinungalingan,” she added.
(I have no problem with criticisms and attacks, but these should not be lies.)
The lady official defeated Marcos by a slim margin of 263,473 votes in the 2016 elections. She is facing an election protest filed by Marcos.
Robredo has previously been the target of malicious stories and fake news online since she won the vice presidency.