At a glance

• Claim: Actress Liza Soberano will represent the Philippines in the 70th Miss Universe pageant to make up for the country’s loss this year.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: Liza Soberano said she has no intention of joining Miss Universe. She and her manager, Ogie Diaz, both debunked the claim in separate social media posts.
• Why we fact-checked this: The Facebook post containing this claim has over 213,000 interactions as of writing, according to data from CrowdTangle.

Complete details

A fake Facebook account posing as actress Liza Soberano posted a claim on Monday, May 17, that circulated after the coronation night of the 69th Miss Universe. It said, “Bawi tayo next year! Ako bahala. #MissUniverse (Let’s make up for it next year! I’ll take care of it. #MissUniverse).”

The comments on the post showed that fans got excited about Soberano’s intention to represent the Philippines in the 70th edition of Miss Universe. The post has accumulated over 68,000 shares, 135,000 reactions, and 10,000 comments as of writing, according to data from social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle.

This claim is false.

Soberano denied the claim in her Instagram stories and said that she has no Facebook account. Her manager, Ogie Diaz, also debunked the claim in a separate Facebook post.

“As much as I am flattered and grateful for all of your support and comments saying that I should give Miss Universe a try, I really don’t think it is for me,” Inquirer.net quoted Soberano as saying on her Instagram Stories on Monday, May 17.

The actress explained that being an introvert is one of the reasons why she’s not inclined to join Miss Universe. “Stages with huge audience scare me half to death (as ironic as it may sound),” the actress wrote on her Instagram stories.

Soberano also urged people to report the fake account posing as her.

Diaz, Soberano’s manager, also debunked the claim on his verified Facebook page on Monday.

“Alam ko namang maraming nagpu-push ke Liza Soberano to join the Miss Universe-Philippines, dahil malakas kutob nila na Liza can make it. Again. thank you po. Pero fake account po yan. Hindi po ganyan magsalita si Liza. Hehehe. Saka noon pa sinabi na ni Liza, hindi pa sumagi sa isip niya ang sumali dahil alam niyang grabeng preparasyon commitment at dedication ang puhunan dito,” Diaz said.

(I know that many are pushing Liza Soberano to join the Miss Universe-Philippines because they believe that Liza can make it. Again, thank you. But that is a fake account. Lisa does not speak that way. Liza has also said before that it never crossed her mind to join the pageant because she knows the amount of preparation, commitment, and dedication needed for it.)

Both Soberano and Diaz said they were grateful for the trust and support, but maintained that the actress has no plans of joining Miss Universe. – Owenh Toledo/Rappler.com

This article was written by a volunteer of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program, a 5-week exclusive and hands-on training on detecting, investigating, and verifying online misinformation and disinformation.

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.