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Claim: Circulating “polvoron” videos online show President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: Clips of the polvoron video supposedly showing Marcos were posted by multiple Facebook accounts and pages.
A Faceboook page named “Boldyakan,” for instance, posted the video on July 22, hours before Marcos’ third State of the Nation Address (SONA). The said page is managed by Maharlika, a known pro-Duterte content creator. The video has 111,000 plays, 2,700 comments, 5,100 reactions, and 1,500 shares as of writing.
A Facebook user named “Phacs-VIew” posted a reel containing the same clip with the text “BBM polvoron video inilabas na (BBM polvoron video now released),” with “polvoron” – a crumbly pastry – being used as a euphemism for illegal substances. “BBM” is popularly used to refer to Marcos, an abbreviation of his nickname Bongbong Marcos.
The video was presented by Maharlika at the July 22 Hakbang ng Maisug event in California attended by pro-Duterte personalities such as former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque and former senatorial candidate Glenn Chong.
The facts: Sensity, a web-based tool for detecting deepfakes, flagged the so-called polvoron video as “suspicious,” and indicated with a confidence rate of 81.8% that a potential “faceswap” may have been done on the video.
A July 23 Rappler report detailed the Sensity findings, which noted that the “submitted file is not camera original” as indicated by the presence of generative AI tools used for artificially replacing the face of an individual in a video or photo, such as Faceswap and Reface, in the video’s generation history.
“Traces of various devices were also detected in the file format,” Rappler reported.
It is difficult to fact check the video and make a final judgment on its authenticity as “most of the versions of the video that were circulated were merely videos taken from the screen on the stage as the organizers of the California event were looping the ‘original’ video,” the report added. None of those present at the Hakbang ng Maisug event posted the video directly on their social media pages.
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Debunked: A forensic analysis of the video by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed that the man in the viral polvoron video was not Marcos.
Using a video spectral comparator (VSC), the NBI was able to see that the President’s ears were different from the man in the video. According to a GMA News report, the NBI noted that the “integral notch” and the “antitragus sphere” of Marcos’ ears from the original photo were more embossed compared to the video. Dr. Joseph Reuel Cruz of the NBI Medico-Legal Division said that an individual’s ear is unique to a person.
Meanwhile, the PNP pointed out the discrepancies between the President’s eye shape, nose, and sideburns compared to the man in the video.
Not the first time: This is not the first time that Marcos has been the target of deepfake manipulation. On April 24, the Presidential Communications Office debunked the authenticity of a video circulating online that has an “audio deepfake” of Marcos ordering the military “to act against a particular foreign country.”
Previously fact-checked: Rappler has debunked videos that used AI manipulation techniques to spread false information:
- FACT CHECK: Doc Willie Ong ad for heart ailment cure is AI-manipulated
- FACT CHECK: Ad for apple cider vinegar shampoo is AI-manipulated
- FACT CHECK: Jessica Soho’s weight loss pill ‘report’ is AI-manipulated
- FACT CHECK: Image of PCG ship armed with ‘fire cannons’ is AI-generated
- FACT CHECK: Video of Bella Hadid supporting Israel is AI-generated
– Ailla Dela Cruz/Rappler.com
Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.
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