By Macon Ramos-Araneta
AN administration ally defended the Liberal Party candidates for President and vice president, Manuel Roxas II and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, Thursday, from what he called unfair attacks.
“Mar and Leni have received more than their fair share of unfair attacks these past few weeks,” said a spokesman for Team Daang Matuwid, Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez said in a statement.
These included “everything from Photoshopped pictures supposedly showing ‘epal’ tarps along Edsa, to deliberate misquotes attached to memes circulated on social media, to five-year-old news stories rehashed as ‘current events,’ to the filing of a CoC for President by a man named Manny Roxas, to the unending barrage of unfounded accusations that Mar is behind everything from Duterte’s cancer rumors to Poe’s disqualification case to Binay’s legal problems,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said a handful of anti-Roxas “troll pages” in social networking sites were circulating “memes of congresswoman Leni with a ‘quote’ that was completely opposite of what she really said.”
He also complained about Facebook pages that recycled old news stories that were unfavorable to Roxas and present them as if they were new.
Social media are then bombarded with “news feeds” and memes that reflect poorly on Roxas and the President. These include Roxas’ infamous one-liners in the aftermath of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” where he told the Tacloban City mayor, “Bahala kayo sa buhay niyo” and “You are a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino.”
On Wednesday, Robredo decried the circulation of retouched photos showing tarpaulins bearing her image and name on congested streets.
Gutierrez said the ruling party doesn’t have an idea on who placed these tarpaulins or the retouched photos on social networking sites, saying these were “non-existent.”
Gutierrez added that neither Roxas nor Robredo have “whined or complained or screamed black propaganda at the top of their lungs.”
Instead, they have “quietly, calmly, patiently answered every question, issued the necessary clarifications, and taken the appropriate steps to address each issue.”
On Thursday, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said those who launched a smear campaign against him and his presidential running mate Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago were merely afraid of them.
These attacks appeared not just in print but also in social media, he said.
Through text messages, lies were being peddled against him and Santiago, he said.
“The attack has been launched against me and the machinery of the clique behind this is strong,” Marcos said.
But he said those who resorted to black propaganda would fail, and said he would stick to an issues-based campaign.
“I will fight fairly. I believe God is my armor; the truth is my weapon,” he said.
But the Palace lashed out at Marcos Thursday for criticizing the Aquino administration as “confrontational, polarizing and vindictive.”