FALSE

The University of the Philippines did not instruct retired professor Clarita Carlos to endorse Vice President Leni Robredo in the May 9 elections. The national university did not endorse any candidate.

A YouTube video posted by PINAS TALK PH on May 31, however, falsely claimed that Carlos revealed she was ordered by UP to support Robredo.

On May 21, UP’s Department of Political Science released an announcement stressing the list of its official and active faculty members to “avoid any misinformation or misrepresentation.”

The notice said affiliation with an institution is important “because it lends credence to the character and credibility of the faculty members.”

The official website of the department shows that Carlos is not in the list of professor emeriti, active professors and lecturers.

The post did not mention that Carlos was ordered by UP or the Department of Political Science to endorse Robredo. Similarly, the official accounts of UP and the said department did not express support for any political candidate.

Read the full story on FactRakers.

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.

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.

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