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Claim: Alleged Pampanga gambling lord Bong Pineda is financing the election campaign of Camarines Sur gubernatorial candidate Bong Rodriguez.
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: The claim was made in an 86-second video posted on February 15 by a Facebook page named Bantay Epal. As of writing, it has gained 1,800 reactions, 464 comments, 168 shares, and 634,000 views.
The video shows images of Rodriguez and Pineda along with footage of minors allegedly taking part in gambling. The video claims to reveal Rodriguez’s true character by linking him to Pineda, who is allegedly behind the operations of Evenchance Gaming Corp., a Small Town Lottery (STL) outlet.
Rodriguez, the subject of the video, is currently in a head-to-head gubernatorial race against Camarines Sur 2nd District Representative Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte. The allegations made in the video may impact constituents’ voting preferences as the May 2025 midterm election approaches.
Meta Ads Library showed that the video was boosted in three separate active advertisements with budgets ranging from P8,000 to P9,500. Each paid ad targets an estimated one million audience size in the Bicol Region.
The facts: The video does not mention any credible source or evidence to support its claim. It also uses artificial intelligence (AI)-generated clips and manipulated photos.
Sightengine AI Detector flagged the clip showing Rodriguez and Pineda beside each other as 99% manipulated and 8% generative AI.
The snapshot of the first five seconds of the video was also detected as 93% AI-generated, the clip of female students was 94% AI-generated, while the clip showing elementary students was flagged as 98% AI.
Deepware also detected the first 27 seconds of the video as deepfake.
Aside from AI-generated clips, the video also used a compilation of footage from 0:29 to 0:43 showing minors allegedly engaging in bets with Evenchance. However, contrary to the video’s claim, Rodriguez cannot be seen in any of the clips.
‘Pure allegations’: In October 2024, Rodriguez’s camp also faced similar accusations from unofficial Facebook pages in Bicol. The Camarines Sur gubernatorial candidate denied the allegations in an interview with Rappler, saying that his team had long been dealing with such attacks before announcing their election bid.
Camarines Sur 4th District Representative Arnie Fuentebella, who was also accused of being financed by Pineda, also refuted the claims in a July 2024 interview with a local radio station in Naga City. Fuentebella is currently seeking reelection under Rodriguez’s slate.
Fuentebella added that he was surprised to learn that they are being linked to a personality in Pampanga. He suspects that it might be connected to the rivalry for the possession of an STL franchise in Camarines Sur.
In 2018, Villafuerte accused Pineda of being behind the operations of Evenchance in Camarines Sur. He also told a Senate hearing that the firm allows minors to place and collect bets. – Angelee Kaye Abelinde/Rappler.com
Angelee Kaye Abelinde, a campus journalist from Naga City, is a second-year Journalism student of Bicol University and the current copy editor of The Bicol Universitarian. She is a graduate of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow of Rappler for 2024.
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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