Photo recycled to accuse pro-Duterte, ‘Team China’ bets in VisMin of vote buying

A Facebook post recycled a 2019 photo to falsely claim that local candidates in the Visayas and Mindanao supporting former president Rodrigo Duterte and China are involved in vote buying. 

The text overlaid on the image posted on May 12 by user Migz Oznola reads:

Mga lokal na kandidato na pro-Duterte o Team China sa VisMin nahuling namimili ng boto. COMELEC ilalabas and listahan (Local candidates who are pro-Duterte or Team China in VisMin caught buying votes. COMELEC to release the list).

The photo originally appeared in a 2019 ABS-CBN article about the arrest of 28 individuals in Negros Occidental for alleged vote buying during that year’s elections.

Original photo published by ABS-CBN in 2019

The post also falsely implies that the image was produced by pro-Duterte media outlet SMNI. There is no evidence it was ever published on SMNI’s website or Facebook page.

The photo inaccurately lists Magdaleno “Magsie” Peña as a mayoral candidate in the photo. He is not running for office in 2025, but his son Miguel is a candidate in Pulupandan, Negros Occidental.

Antonio Esteban “Tony” Suachengco, listed as vice mayoral candidate, died in 2022 of cardiac arrest.

A Rappler photo of the same vote-buying case also resurfaced online and is being used in multiple misleading posts alleging vote buying in different regions.

Migz Oznola’s account was created on July 9, 2023 and has 344 followers as of this writing.

The original post had its comments disabled but was shared to multiple Davao-related Facebook groups with the caption: “Salot sa lipunan mga DDS (DDS are a plague to society),” drawing backlash from users who labeled the content as fake news. (DA)