FACT CHECK: Leni-Kiko supporters recruited Marikina Science High School students in an election-related event #FactsFirstPH

Rating: FALSE

The Facts: In a post by a Facebook user, a publication material was allegedly released by officials of Marikina Science High School claiming that their students have been invited to attend an “election-related movement.”

In the pubmat, MariSci asserted that the school remains politically neutral and advised against participating in any such activities. The original Facebook poster claimed that this was the work of “NPA-backed Pinklawans,” who are trying to recruit non-voting minors. In the same post, he indicated that the source of the pubmat is from his brother’s PTA group chat.

The Facebook user’s claim is false.

Firstly, MariSci’s statement does not divulge which political group reached out to their students in the supposed election-related movement. The date of this announcement’s release is also unverifiable, as it only allegedly circulated within the PTA group chat during an unspecified time. Thus, this also calls into question the authenticity of the pubmat itself.

Furthermore, VP Robredo and her camp have no links to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and their military arm, the New People’s Army (NPA), a fact that has been corroborated by the CPP previously. This has been reiterated multiple times (https://www.philstar.com/…/cpp-no-coalition-govt-talks…) (https://www.facebook.com/…/a.18748…/5249699091788986/…).

Robredo has since diverged from the Liberal Party (LP) since her vice presidential campaign in 2016. Due to the LP’s use of the yellow motif, supporters of the party are often derogatorily referred to as “dilawan” by detractors (https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/…/fwd-robredo-disputes…).

Although on-ground Leni-Kiko campaigns in Marikina City are open to volunteers regardless of age, there have been no official reports that can verify that these ‘invitations’ are indeed done by Kakampinks to oblige MariSci students to participate in election-related events.

Currently, there is no such public release made by Marikina Science High School on their official Facebook page regarding this alleged incident concerning their students.

Why we fact-checked this: The post promotes misinformation that not only red-tags a candidate, but also potentially sows fear and anxiety for the safety and well-being of minors.