President Ferdinand Marcos last month jogged out of his office and broke into impromptu jumping jacks in an attempt to dispel rumours he was paralysed, dying of late-stage cancer or dead.
While largely played for laughs, the government lodged complaints against several Facebook accounts and warned tech giant Meta it faced legal action should it fail to curb disinformation it labelled an “escalating” threat to national security.
Since the 68-year-old leader’s January hospitalisation for diverticulitis – an inflammation in the colon – social media has been awash with speculation he was more ill than publicised.
The posts have circulated widely among supporters of Marcos’ arch-rival and 2028 presidential candidate, Vice-President Sara Duterte, whose Monday impeachment has thrown her run into doubt.
There were hundreds of posts on Facebook, TikTok and X – some racking up tens of thousands of shares – of old or edited visuals as proof of the president’s ailing health.
The narrative has sown “seeds of instability” in his presidency and largely benefited Duterte, Jean Franco, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines, said.
It also leans heavily into the Marcos family’s history of medical secrecy.
The president’s father and namesake, sick with kidney disease during the final years of his dictatorship, once lifted his shirt on national television to show he bore no transplant scars.
“Just like his father”, one Facebook user wrote in a post speculating Marcos had died in April.
Numerous posts have also accused the media of colluding with the administration to keep details of his health secret.
One altered image – shared in a page with 80,000 followers called “President Duterte News” – alleged that major broadcaster GMA News was part of a cover-up.
That framing, repeated across multiple Facebook pages, is intended to “further erode trust in legitimate media”, said Yvonne Chua, who teaches journalism at the University of the Philippines.
“They reinforce the broader narrative that mainstream media cannot be trusted and is aligned with those in power,” Chua said. — AFP
