FACT CHECK: Did 31 Million People Vote for Leni Robredo In The 2022 Philippine Presidential Election?

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

An image shared on Facebook claims to show a vote tally indicating that 31 million people voted for Philippine presidential candidate Leni Robredo in the country’s 2022 presidential election.

Verdict: False

The image has been edited. There is no evidence to suggest that 31 million people voted for Robredo.

Fact Check:

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. decisively won the 2022 Philippine presidential election with over 30 million votes, according to the Associated Press. Robredo, who was Marcos Jr.’s main rival in the race, conceded on May 13, urging her supporters to accept the results and continue to fight disinformation, The New York Times reported.

The Facebook image appears to show an ABS-CBN webpage that shows Robredo receiving over 31 million votes, more than Marcos Jr. received. “COMELEC how can 31,839,638 votes for Leni become 14 million + in latest tallies? Is the transparency server doing negative addition? This should be answered to know the real voice of the people,” reads the image’s caption.

There is no evidence Robredo ever had 31 million votes. If she had, media outlets would have covered it, yet none have. Check Your Fact also reviewed ABS-CBN’s election results website, which currently shows Marcos Jr. with over 31 million votes and Robredo with 14 million. Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim that Robredo received more votes than Marcos Jr.

Check Your Fact reviewed archived screenshots of ABS-CBN’s election results website from May 9 and May 10 and found no evidence the news outlet ever reported that Robredo had received more than 14 million votes. It is possible to change vote tally numbers on a website like ABS-CBS, according to Reuters.

ABS-CBN did not directly address the image, but tweeted that “edited screen shots” of its results page were circulating online. (RELATED: Altered Image Shows Fake Count In Philippines’ 2022 Presidential Election)

“Beware of some edited screen shots using images from the ABS-CBN HALALAN RESULTS page that are being shared on social media,” reads a statement the media outlet tweeted out. “We would like to inform the public that these are manipulated images. Like other media organizations and other institutions, ABS-CBN has been getting its data from the Comelec Transparency Media Server. The resulting data are similar. We appeal to the public to stop spreading disinformation.”

Check Your Fact recently debunked a false image that appeared to show Robredo with 19 million votes.

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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