Presidential aspirant Leody de Guzman
MANILA, Philippines — Presidential aspirant Leody de Guzman has disowned and flagged six Facebook (FB) pages masquerading as his supporters in a crusade against his fellow opponents in the May 9 election.
The fake pages boasted the survey leads of one particular candidate—the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
De Guzman, in a statement on late Thursday, said he and his campaign team have observed in the past few weeks the emergence of fake Facebook pages pretending to be volunteers for his presidential campaign.
After a closer look into these pages, De Guzman said they discovered that the accounts were smearing all other presidential candidates, “except for one.”
“It is clear that this is being run by online trolls because they are under one network sharing these posts [of these pages],” the labor leader said.
These Facebook pages were named as “Ka Lodi Sakalam Supporters,” “Ka Leody-Visayas Support,” “Ka Leody Supporters 2022,” “Ka Leody Support-BICOL,” “Ka Leodycakes Natin Support,” and the “Leody bells.”
Out of those pages, the “Leody bells” account was already unavailable on Facebook at press time.
In one particular page, as checked by the Inquirer, the “Ka Leody Support-BICOL” made a post calling Robredo “weak” and “dilawan (yellow),” a jab by staunch critics at the once-ruling Liberal Party, to which the Vice President remains as party chair and her running mate, Sen. Francis Pangilinan, as party president.