FALSE: Arlene Brosas discriminates vs PWDs in a post

At a glance:

• Claim: Gabriela Representative Arlene Brosas posted that persons with disabilities (PWD) are thieves, criminals, and children of Satan.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: Brosas refuted this claim. There is also no proof that Brosas posted this.
• Why we fact-checked this: A Rappler reader sent this claim for verification. The claim was posted by a user with 6,399 followers.

Complete details:

Posts on social media claim that Gabriela Representative Arlene Brosas in her own post called persons with disabilities (PWD) thieves, criminals, and children of Satan.

The Facebook post and the tweet that contained this claim included a supposed screenshot of Brosas’ post, which reads in broken Filipino: “Panawagan sa mga Filipino wag po tayo maniniwala sa youtube tungkol lumalabas ang mga history vlogger at kakayahan ng mga PWD vlogger dahil mga fake news lang yan dahil sa pekeng kasaysayan yan si Marcos bayani? Ang totoo si Marcos ay diktador at marami niya pinatay ang mga inosenteng tao. Mga Person With Disability magnanakaw lang yan kanilang talento ng hindi sa kanila para matakpan kanilang pagiging kriminal at sila ay anak ni Satanas #NoToHistoryRevisionism #NoToPWD.”

Roughly translated, the post says: “Calling out to Filipinos not to believe YouTube videos about what is published by history vloggers and the capabilities of PWD vloggers because that is just fake news, because that is fake history, Marcos as a hero? The truth is Marcos is a dictator and he killed a lot of innocent people. Persons with disabilities are just thieves, they steal talent that isn’t theirs to cover up their criminality, and they are children of Satan. #NoToHistoryRevisionism #NoToPWD.”

This claim was sent by a Rappler reader for verification.

Brosas refuted this claim, saying it was edited. There is also no proof that she posted this.

The lawmaker said, “This post is clearly edited as I have made no such statement against persons with disabilities… I support the campaign for global awareness of disability-inclusive development, as well as the full integration of persons with disabilities in societies,” Brosas told Rappler through a Viber message.

She added that in 2016, the Gabriela Women’s Party even filed House Resolution No. 364, which moved to conduct an inquiry on the provision of interpreters in judicial, quasi-judicial, and investigative proceedings for victims and accused PWDs, including the deaf, mute, and blind.

There are also no official news reports about Brosas posting such a statement discriminating against PWDs.

When Rappler reached out to the person who tweeted this claim, the person sent via direct message the full screenshot, which was a post of a Facebook user named Annie Gil. The post contained a screenshot of Brosas’ supposed post.

Rappler also reached out to Gil, but has not received a response as of writing.

Facebook user Relissa Lucena, who is affiliated with Hands Off Our Children, also posted this claim. When asked for proof that Brosas posted this, she referred Rappler to two other Facebook users. One of them responded that they did not have proof of Brosas’ post, while the other has not responded to Rappler.

Lucena is a private complainant in a kidnapping and human trafficking case against Anakbayan and other leftist personalities. Her daughter, Alicia Lucena, accused her of abuse and maintained that she was not kidnapped nor convinced by members of the Makabayan bloc to join the New People’s Army.

In addition, the Hands Off Our Children Facebook page was among the those recently taken down by Facebook for coordinated inauthentic behavior. Lucena’s own Facebook page has 6,399 followers as of writing.

Earlier, Rappler debunked another false claim involving Brosas, wherein a supposed news report confirmed her to be a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front. – Loreben Tuquero/Rappler.com

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