NO BASIS

Presidential Communications Operations Office Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy claimed, without proof, that communist groups brought the supporters that flocked to the campaign rally of presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo.

In a Facebook post on March 9, Badoy said:

Ang CPP NPA NDF ang nagdala ng hakot sa Leni Kiko rally pero ang pinagbintangan ng marami ay ang team ng VP (It was the CPP-NPA-NDF who brought troops of supporters in the Leni-Kiko rally but it was the VP team that was blamed).

In her post, Badoy also said the statement of the University of the Philippines condemning the killing of alumnus Chad Booc, a volunteer teacher in the Save Our Schools Network, came “straight out” of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA) and National Democratic Front (NDF).

The PCOO undersecretary did not substantiate her claim that the “hakot” at Robredo’s rally was the handiwork of the communist movement.

Robredo’s camp has denied allegations that CPP-NPA-NDF members were present in their campaign rally.

In a statement published March 6, the Robredo People’s Council (RPC)–Cavite said the estimated 47,000 attendees in Robredo’s campaign rally in Gen.Trias on March 4 were all organic volunteers from different sectors. It also condemned the allegations that the youth and student supporters were leftist and sympathizers of NDF as irresponsible and dangerous.

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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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