MANILA, Philippines — The campaign of presidential bet Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. accused Vice President Leni Robredo of spreading lies in its response to the circulation of fake video links against her daughter.
For Robredo's campaign, however, the allegation of "deception" when a crime has been committed bares its rival's campaign scheme.
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In a statement on Wednesday, Barry Gutierrez said they did not expect sympathy or concern from Marcos' campaign. “But it reveals a lot about who they are that barely 24 hours after a crime was committed against VP Leni’s family, here they are, in full attack mode, adding insult upon insult on what is already the most unjust of injuries,” he continued.
Robredo pointed to the Marcos camp as the source of the fake video links of her eldest daughter Aika that surfaced earlier this week. She insisted she knows this because she has been at the bitter end of such a smear campaign for the last six years.
“Before, I’m the only focus, but now, they are moving against my children, even they have become victims. We were expecting it, but we want to show that this is not the kind of leadership and campaign that we want,” she said in an ambush interview in La Union on Tuesday.
“Maybe they resort to fake news because they have nothing good to say about themselves,” she also said, adding that Marcos is surrounded by the same influencers since they started spreading false information against her in 2016.
'Continuing deception'
Hours later, Marcos’ spokesperson Vic Rodriguez issued a statement on Robredo’s “continuing deception.”
Addressing the incumbent vice president as “Mrs. Robredo,” he said they can no longer “deceive the Filipino people as we have all been awaken [sic] from their propaganda of lies, falsehood and politics of deception” without mentioning a specific incident.
Reiterating Marcos' call for unity, Rodriguez told the vice president: “Enough of your deceptions.”
For Gutierrez, meanwhile, Robredo and her team have been enduring “the most toxic forms of online harassment for the better part of six years” and they already know Marcos' playbook.
“This latest insult-laden tirade, coming hard on the heels of yesterday’s exceedingly low blow, should make the same truth clear to us all,” he added.
Marcos, who lost in the vice presidential race to Robredo in 2016, had filed an electoral protest that took years to resolve before the Supreme Court as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. In 2021, the tribunal dismissed Marcos' complaints of fraud and declared affirmed Robredo's poll victory.
Elevate discourse
Presidential bet Ka Leody de Guzman, meanwhile, threw his support behind Robredo and her daughter.
Like the vice president, the labor leader also pointed to the “rotten politics” of Marcos and Duterte. “This kind of defamation (previously done to Sen. Leila de Lima) and the spread of false information is a trademark of the rotten politics of the faction of Marcos Jr. and Duterte, even if it is said to be made by their supporters,” the tweeted in Filipino.
De Guzman branded Rodriguez’s claim that the supposed video came from Robredo’s camp as “foolishness.” “Why would they do this kind of impudence to the one they are supporting?”
He then called on his fellow candidates to elevate the level of discourse and instead debate how they can help in the crisis the country is facing. — Kristine Joy Patag