An official for the Philippine election commission Comelec did not say online ballots for May’s poll were designed to rig the results, contrary to rumours circulating on social media. The agency faced scrutiny as it launched the archipelago’s first internet voting system, but the shared footage was misleadingly edited. The full clip actually shows an election official explaining the security features of the ballot system.
“Here it is. Comelec is exposed for fraud during OFWs’ online voting,” reads the Tagalog-language caption of a Facebook reel with more than one million views, using the acronym for overseas Filipino workers.
The clip, posted April 14, 2025, shows an interview with Comelec director for overseas voting Ian Geonanga, where he was asked about claims from some voters that their cast ballots included the names of candidates they had not selected.
Geonanga is depicted responding: “It’s part of the process. It’s designed like that.”
On April 13, Comelec introduced the country’s first online voting system as it kicked off the month-long voting period for overseas Filipinos for the May mid-term polls (archived link).
It defended the system after confusion arose online over a code on the ballot that contained the full list of candidates, which led to doubts whether voters’ choice was correctly recorded (archived link).
Similar posts on Facebook and YouTube reshared the claim, but the video had been edited to omit the context of Geonanga’s remarks.
A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes led to his interview with Philippine news outlet Rappler published on April 16 (archived link).
“Comelec clarifies ballot code after voting online,” the YouTube video’s title reads.
The full interview is more than five minutes long, but the circulating clip only shows the first 18 seconds and excludes Geonanga’s further remarks.
Read the full story on AFP Fact Check.