Vice President Leni Robredo again called out Mocha Uson, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) official and blogger, for sharing false information on the former’s visit to the victims of the Taal Volcano eruption.
The eruption last Sunday displaced more than 30,000 residents and resulted in more than half a billion pesos worth of damage to crop and livestock.
Based on her Facebook posts, Robredo and her team went to Batangas to distribute relief goods to the victims in evacuation centers earlier this week.
However, Uson posted an article from a sketchy website alleging that what the vice president did there was for fanfare only.
“Hindi nakapagtataka na galit na ang mga tao sa mga istilong bulok na ganito. Hindi din kasi ito ang unang pagkakataong inuna ni Leni ang pagpapa photo ops kaysa sa pagtulong sa mga biktima ng trahedya,” the blogger said.
Hindi nakapagtataka na galit na ang mga tao sa mga istilong bulok na ganito. Hindi din kasi ito ang unang pagkakataong…
Posted by MOCHA USON BLOG on Wednesday, January 15, 2020
So far, the post got over 3,000 comments and had been shared over 6,000 times.
Robredo noticed it and denounced the post as fake news.
“While our people are suffering from an unfortunate tragedy, this bearer of fake news continues to receive salary out of taxpayers’ money. Let’s all help put a stop to the proliferation of lies,” she said on Twitter.
While our people are suffering from an unfortunate tragedy, this bearer of fake news continues to receive salary out of taxpayers’ money.
Let’s all help put a stop to the proliferation of lies.
Here’s the link: https://t.co/75HXMUdAxf pic.twitter.com/J3LtMWldgm
— Leni Robredo (@lenirobredo) January 16, 2020
The article that Uson shared came from a website called MindaNation. Its description states that it’s a blog for MindaVote, a group composed of President Rodrigo Duterte’s vocal supporters.
The write-up featured the comment of a user named Artanacla Oallap, who claimed that she only distributed one pan de sal and one bottled water for each evacuee.
“However, it seems that some people are seeing this calamity as a photo opportunity. And by some people, we’re talking about alleged-VP Leni Robredo,” part of the article read.
Robredo also took to Facebook to disprove the same comment. She also shared a screenshot of it on her post.
“Fake News!!!! Pati ba naman trahedya, gagamitin pa para magsinungaling,” she said.
Fake News!!!! Pati ba naman trahedya, gagamitin pa para magsinungaling.
Posted by Leni Gerona Robredo on Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Angat-Buhay operations
On January 13, Robredo sought for volunteers from Metro Manila residents to help her pack relief goods in her office to be distributed the next day.
Through her anti-poverty program Angat Buhay, Robredo conducted relief operations to five evacuation centers in the municipalities of Sta. Teresita, San Jose, and Sto. Tomas in Batangas.
The team with her also distributed a total of 2,101 food packs and 1,000 face masks. Each food pack contained 1.5 kilos of rice, assorted canned goods, and two packs of noodles.
In another post, Robredo admitted that their donations were not enough to meet the needs of the victims.
“We brought help with us. But it was frustrating because we realized that they need so much more,” she said.
She said that they needed donations of mats, pillows and blankets, toiletries/hygiene kits, towels, buckets, portalets and tabos (dippers).
“If you want to donate food, it is advisable to give them straight to the local government units because they cook warm meals for the evacuees 3x a day. There are not enough cooking facilities available for them to cook by themselves,” she said.
