FALSE

Party-lists from the Makabayan bloc are not disqualified to run in the May 9 elections, contrary to what leaflets found across several areas in the country have claimed.

The Commission on Elections announced in a May 8 press briefing that flyers and social media posts alleging the disqualification of progressive party-lists Kabataan, Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, ACT Teachers and Gabriela are not issued by the Comelec and are “fake and spurious.”

The Makabayan bloc has been at the receiving end of red-tagging attacks from President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. They have been repeatedly accused of being affiliated with the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army — both of which are declared terrorist groups by the government.

There is no proof, however, that the bloc is associated with communists.

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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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