MANILA: Malacanang on Monday (April 13) denied the insinuations made by Senator Imee Marcos that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr had been sick for months, calling it another false information spewed by his long-estranged elder sister.
At the sidelines of a press briefing in Malacanang, Palace press officer Claire Castro (pic) said Imee had not seen the President for years so she had no knowledge about his true health condition.
“She said that they have not been seeing each other anymore, right? So what does she know? Nothing. What she said is fake news,” Castro said, speaking Filipino.
The Palace official urged the public to instead follow the news reported by trusted media organizations, whose journalists were able to see President Marcos in person.
“Let us not amplify fake news peddlers. We do not need them in our society. They are a scourge,” Castro said in Filipino.
On Monday, Imee posted on her social media a video message that she knew that President Marcos had been sick since November, despite admitting that she had not seen his brother for a long time.
She also joined the call of some critics of the administration for Malacanang to reveal the truth about President Marcos’ health status.
Malacanang repeatedly denied online rumours that President Marcos was ill, with some rehashing the claim that he has late-stage colon cancer, after he got admitted in a hospital for diverticulitis in January.
Marcos himself said he was in good health, and had been back to his “regular routine” for almost three months.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) earlier said its Anti-Fake News Desk detected a “sudden and coordinated surge” in disinformation across social media platforms targeting the health status of President Marcos last week.
According to PCO Secretary Dave Gomez, the information operations were meant to “distract and destabilise” the government.
He warned purveyors of fake news that authorities would trace their networks and pursue cyber libel charges against them by this week. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
