As Ferdinand Marcos Jr cranked up his campaign for the Philippine presidential election, a video viewed millions of times on social media claimed his late father, a former dictator, established a prestigious college in the capital Manila. In fact, La Consolacion College was founded in 1902, more than one decade before Ferdinand Marcos Sr was born. The video was taken from a satirical TV show.
“If you are anti-Marcos, you should not be working at La Consolacion,” a TV host tells a woman in the street in a TikTok video viewed 3.7 million times.
“Why?” she asks.
“Marcos built La Consolacion,” the man replies.
Tagalog text superimposed on the footage appears to mock the woman: “What can you say now, girl? HAHAHAH”.
The TikTok was posted on February 27, shortly after the Philippine presidential election campaign kicked off.
However, Marcos Sr did not build La Consolacion.
A representative for the Catholic congregation that runs the school said the claim was inaccurate.
“Marcos Sr did not build La Consolacion College Manila,” an official at the Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation told AFP.
“He was not even born yet when the school was founded.”
According to the school’s website, it was founded in 1902 “when the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines offered ten Filipino Augustinian nuns a house near the Basilica of San Sebastian”.
Read the full story on AFP Fact Check.