FALSE: Sotto asks Robredo, opposition senators to resign

At a glance:

• Claim: Senate President Vicente Sotto III is asking Vice President Leni Robredo to resign if she can’t support the Rodrigo Duterte administration.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: Sotto did not ask Robredo to resign. The quote attributed to him was made back in 2017 and was directed at CHR Commissioner Chito Gascon, not Robredo.
• Why we fact checked this: The video containing this claim was flagged by Facebook’s monitoring tool for containing potentially false information. It had over 190,000 views.

Complete details:

Facebook page Trending Viral Balitang Pinas uploaded a video on October 12 that claimed Senate President Vicente Sotto III was asking Vice President Leni Robredo and other critics of the government to resign if they can’t support the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The video ran for 6 minutes and 40 seconds. It said that Sotto dared Robredo to resign, following the President’s statement on September 28 that he offered to resign because of the rampant corruption in the government.

“Para kay Sotto, mga idol, sa halip na magbitiw si President Duterte, mas mainam pa aniya na magbitiw na lang ang mga hindi sumusuporta sa pangulo sa kanilang pwesto. Kasama na nga riyan sina Vice President Leni Robredo, Kiko Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros, Franklin Drilon, at iba pang kontra sa ating mahal na pangulo,” the video said.

(For Sotto, it’s better that those who don’t support the President resign from their posts instead of President Duterte himself. These include Vice President Leni Robredo, Kiko Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros, Franklin Drilon, and others who are against our beloved president.)

The video also quoted Sotto as saying, “If you can’t support Duterte, resign.”

This claim is false. Although Sotto did say the statement attributed to him, it was directed at Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairman Chito Gascon – not Robredo, Pangilinan, Hontiveros, or Drilon. It was also said in a totally different context.

In 2017, Sotto told Gascon to resign if he can’t support Duterte’s war on drugs. This came after the House of Representatives slashed the 2018 budget of CHR to P1,000, which Sotto said was due to Gascon’s fierce criticism of the government’s anti-drug campaign. In the end, the CHR was given P695.5 million for 2018.

“Ako nga, ang simple lang ng sinasabi ko, kasi naman dapat naman kasi, kung ikaw nagtratrabaho ka sa isang government, hindi mo gusto ‘yung mga polisiya nung namumuno, eh ‘di umalis ka, at saka mo siya pintasan,” Sotto told Gascon. The page also included this statement in the video and falsely said it was directed at Robredo.

(What I’m saying is simple. If you’re working for the government, and you don’t like the policies of the President, then leave. Then criticize him after.)

What Sotto said about Duterte’s latest statement that he offered to resign due to corruption was that corrupt officials should resign instead of the President. He made no mention of Robredo or any opposition senators, according to reports from Inquirer.net and Manila Bulletin.

Claim Check, Facebook’s monitoring tool, flagged the video for fact checkers to verify. As of writing, the video had over 190,000 views, 11,600 reactions, 2,700 shares, and 1,600 comments.

This is not the first time Rappler debunked a post by Facebook page Trending Viral Balitang Pinas. Earlier this month, the page uploaded a video that claimed that the United Nations supports Duterte’s war on drugs and that it slammed Hontiveros and Pangilinan for criticizing the anti-drug campaign. This was also false. – Pauline Macaraeg/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.