Altered

A screenshot of the Bacolod mayoral race on a poll results portal has been altered to falsely and prematurely show a landslide victory for mayoral candidate Rep. Greg Gasataya even before vote counting had even started.

Uploaded at 4 p.m. on election day by EL Sa Liar Nardia’s Facebook account, the doctored snapshot falsely claims Casataya swept the votes of all the 356,814 registered Bacolod voters, leaving his rival, incumbent Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, with zero. It bore the caption:

BREAKING! Congratulations! Mayor Greg Gasataya 🧡🧡🧡 Leonardia and Familiaran are expected to release separate statements to concede from the mayoral and congressional race in Bacolod.

This is impossible as vote counting only starts “as soon as the voting is finished,” according to Section 206, Article XVIII of the Omnibus Election Code. Regular voting ended at 7 p.m.

The false figures were superimposed on a screenshot of ABS-CBN’s election results portal, which aggregates data from the Commission on Elections. No vote count in the Bacolod mayoral race had appeared on the portal as of 8:04 p.m.

Read the full story on FactRakers.org.

Share this

Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Share on Reddit

FactRakers is a Philippines-based fact-checking initiative of journalism majors at the University of the Philippines-Diliman working under the supervision of Associate Professor Yvonne T. Chua of the University of the Philippines’ Journalism Department. Associate Professor Ma. Diosa Labiste, also of the Journalism Department, serves as editorial consultant.

FactRakers' fact-checks also include those produced by Tinig ng Plaridel — the official student publication of the UP College of Media and Communication — and the UP Journalism Club.

The name of the initiative, coined from the words “fact” and “raker,” is inspired by the term “muckrakers,” first used in the early 1900s by American president Theodore Roosevelt to express his annoyance at progressive, reform-minded journalists at the time.

factrakers.org