A Palace official has branded Vice President Leni Robredo as “one of the primary purveyors” of fake news and President Rodrigo Duterte as a “bigger victim” of it than the vice president.

“Just to make it clear that misinformation, lies and all these misleadings do not come exclusively form the Duterte camp. Neither do they come from just officials that are identified with the government,” Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Marie T. Badoy said during the hearing of the Senate committee on public information and mass media.

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“In fact, the Vice President is one of the primary purveyors of fake news and that the President is maybe an even bigger victim than she is,” Badoy added.

Asked by Senator Grace Poe, chair of the committee, to qualify her statement against the Vice President, Badoy pointed to Robredo’s earlier remark where she supposedly painted “a gloomy picture” of the country when she spoke before an international audience .

At that time, Badoy said, an unprecedented number of Filipinos, 98 percent, were reportedly “very helpful.”

“And this is an international audience that she peddles and spread these lies about,” the Palace official said.

To this, Poe said: “Well, that’s her (Robredo) opinion and I guess the numbers will speak for itself as you said.”

Badoy later qualified that her statement about Robredo was her “personal opinion.” /je

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