Vice President Leni Robredo has responded to a viral photo of a woman getting vaccinated, who she said was not her.
On her Facebook page, Robredo posted screenshots of the woman’s photo receiving coronavirus vaccine shot and said, “Hindi po ako ‘yan (That’s not me),” with a facepalm emojii.
“FAKE NEWS ALERT! Mariin naming pinabubulaanan na si VP Leni ang babaeng binabakunahan sa litratong ito na kumakalat sa social media (We vehemently deny VP Leni was the woman being vaccinated in this photo circulating on social media),” her office said in a separate post.
The vice president said she was not the woman in the photo, but rather Dr. Flordeliza Grana, a pediatric surgeon at the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center (ARMMC) in Marikina City.
Grana was among the medical frontliners who were vaccinated first with China’s Sinovac vaccine. She was wearing a “bakuna” blouse, whose sleeves have slits, Robredo noted.
Robredo laughed off the latest false accusations from her critics and bashers, but at the same time apologized to Grana for being dragged into the issue.
One of the first who posted the fake photo was pro-Duterte political blogger Sass Rogando Sasot in her blog For the Motherland - Sass Rogando Sasot.
Her post was soon picked up by the President’s supporters who named Robredo as the one in the picture.
It isn’t clear if Sasot is back to political blogging, but she has been actively posting anti-Robredo and pro-Duterte content on her social media page.
Robredo advised the public to be discerning on what they see in social media because these could be just fake information circulated online.
“Muli naming binibigyang diin ang kahalagahan ng tama at makabuluhang impormasyon sa panahong ito. Huwag basta-bastang mag-assume (We emphasize again the importance of correct and meaninful information during this time. Don’t just assume),” she said.