FACT CHECK: Did Queen Elizabeth Disparage Filipinos While Congratulating Ferdinand Marcos Jr. For Winning The 2022 Election?

Elias AtienzaMay 16, 2022

An image shared on Facebook claims Queen Elizabeth II disparaged Filipinos while congratulating Ferdinand “BongBong” Marcos Jr. for winning the country’s presidential election.

Verdict: False

There is no record of the queen making the alleged statement.

Fact Check:

Marcos Jr. has been declared the presumptive winner of the 2022 Philippine presidential election, according to Al-Jazeera. World leaders, such as U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, have since offered their congratulations to Marcos Jr., the outlet reported.

An image shared on Facebook claims the queen recently offered her congratulations as well. It shows a photo of the queen along with an alleged quote of hers that reads, in part, “Today I wear red to express my congratulations to the Philippines’ President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. I know that he is a good leader. Unfortunately, the oligarchs are destroying his name, and the citizens just keep complaining.”

There is no record of the queen making such a statement. No such quote appears in any of the speeches and remarks from the queen or the royal family. Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to corroborate the alleged statement. The Filipino fact-checking website Vera Files reported the Facebook post originated as satire. (RELATED: Did Buckingham Palace Confirm Queen Elizabeth Tested Positive For Coronavirus?)

A reverse image search revealed the photo of the queen featured in the post stems from a May 2021 visit she made to a naval base in the U.K. It can be found on the stock photo website Alamy with a caption that reads, “Britain’s Queen Elizabeth visits HMS Queen Elizabeth ahead of the ship’s maiden deployment at HM Naval Base in Portsmouth, Britain May 22, 2021.”

This is not the first time a quote about Filipino political affairs has been misattributed to the monarch. Check Your Fact debunked a viral claim in 2020 that alleged she praised current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.