ALTERED PHOTO: Crowd of Bongbong Marcos supporters in front of Pampanga Capitol

At a glance

• Claim: A photo shows that a crowd of supporters of presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. gathered in front of the Pampanga Capitol, posing for posterity during their caravan held on November 21.
• Rating: ALTERED PHOTO
• The facts: The original photo was taken during an event at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, USA, in celebration of “Gay Days” in June 2019.
• Why we fact-checked this: Several concerned netizens and social media blogs have called out the post as misleading.

Complete details

A photo showed a group of people wearing red shirts, making them appear like they were supporters of presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. gathered in front of the Pampanga Capitol in the City of San Fernando. They were supposedly posing for posterity during a nationwide caravan held Sunday, November 21.

The photo was posted on Facebook by user “Emmanuel Sabordo” on November 21 with the caption, “Happening Now: PAMPANGA BBM 2022 MOTORCADE.” 

This photo has been altered.

Based on a Google reverse image search, the original photo shows a group of people wearing red shirts posing at the Disneyland façade in Anaheim, California, USA. It can be found on the Gay Days Anaheim website and was used as the photo in its mailing list section.

The same photo was used in an article about Gay Days Anaheim on Medium.com in September 2019.

Gay Days Anaheim is an annual gathering that takes place in Disneyland but is not presented officially by Disneyland, according to their website. They also explain their red shirts on the website: “Also like Orlando’s Gay Day, we wear RED shirts to identify one another and show our numbers.”

The photo of a group of people in red shirts was altered by changing its background from the Disneyland façade to the Pampanga Capitol to make it appear that a gathering took place in the province of Pampanga in support of Marcos.

Several concerned netizens and social media blogs have called out the post as misleading. – Joann Manabat/Rappler.com

Joann Manabat is part of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor.

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