HOAX: Robredo willing to ‘sacrifice’ herself to be president

Claim: Vice President Leni Robredo supposedly said she was “willing to kill” herself just to replace President Rodrigo Duterte.

The blog presidentdutertenews.com in their undated February post ran the headline, “Viral: Leni Robredo handang magpakamatay maging presidente lang! Panoorin ang balita!”

Facebook’s Claim Check dashboard spotted this post being shared as recent as Sunday, July 22.

The post has been shared 16 times in different Facebook pages and groups. All together, these groups and pages have 2,338,026 followers. The posts generated a total of 2,903 interactions.

The claim has also been published by 3 video-hosting websites namely youtube-nocookie.com, krepmetus.ru, and hdvidzy.com.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The Vice President did not make any such public statement. Robredo had earlier said she does not want to oust Duterte nor has the “political skills” to do so.

In an exclusive interview with CNN Philippines on February 23, Robredo said that it is “unfortunate” that when she voices out her dissent to Duterte, it gets misinterpreted as a plan to oust him.

The post did not mention anything related to its headline, but rather lifted a February 23 CNN Philippines article also about the said interview.

Apart from the copied content, the article also embedded Communications Assistant Secretary Margaux “Mocha” Uson’s vlog talking about Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s spat with the Duterte family. She did not mention Robredo.

The video had a thumbnail suggesting it was an ABS-CBN news report showing Robredo surrounded by journalists, and with a supposed headline supporting the claim.

The blog presidentdutertenews.com says that its editorial team are “dedicated to deliver the most reliable information.” However, the site does not present any editorial team. — Miguel Imperial/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.