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A boosted video, which claims that Pampanga ‘kingmaker’ Bong Pineda is the financier of four Camarines Sur candidates for the 2025 polls, does not cite any evidence for its claims
Claim: Alleged Pampanga gambling lord Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda is the financier of Camarines Sur provincial election candidates Bong Rodriguez, Fermin Mabulo, Arnie Fuentebella, and Philip Fortuno. The four politicians will set up Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO) in Camarines Sur in return for Pineda’s support.
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: The claim was made in a three-minute boosted video posted by Facebook page “Bicol Headlines” on July 14, which has garnered an estimated 10,000 reactions, 1,300 comments, 2,500 shares, and 2.1 million video views as of writing. The video could affect the outcome of the local races in Camarines Sur.
Data on Meta’s Ads Library shows that the video was posted multiple times on Facebook with budgets per boost ranging from P15,000 to P40,000, with an estimated audience size of up to a million users per ad. The ads primarily target audiences from the Bicol region.
Rodriguez, Mabulo, Fortuno, and Fuentebella recently filed their respective certificates of candidacies (COCs) for various positions in Camarines Sur. They belong to the same slate. Rodriguez is vying for provincial governor, Mabulo for 2nd District representative, Fortuno for 5th District representative, while Fuentebella is running for re-election as 4th District representative.
The four will compete against members of the well-entrenched Villafuerte clan who filed their COCs last October 1. Incumbent 2nd District Representative LRay Villafuerte and his son, incumbent Camarines Sur Governor Luigi Villafuerte, are vying for the each other’s present position. Meanwhile, Luigi’s sibling, Migz Villafuerte, is running for 5th District representative. Actor-turned-politician Marco Gumabao is also on the Villafuerte slate, running as 4th District representative.
The facts: The Bicol Headlines video is a hodge podge of video clips from various sources. It did not provide any evidence to support its claims.
Bicol Headlines used two news reports from GMA Integrated News: one from a State of the Nation report and another from 24 Oras. Both were from June 2024 and showed alleged abuses and scamming activities in POGO hubs in Pampanga. The four Camarines Sur politicians were not mentioned in the two news reports.
The vlogger featured in the video, Berteni “Toto” Causing, was previously disbarred by the Supreme Court for posting a defamatory Facebook post in 2019 in violation of the lawyer’s oath.
In 2018, Camarines Sur Representative LRay Villafuerte accused alleged jueteng lord Pineda of being behind the operations of Evenchance Gaming Corp., a Small Town Lottery (STL) outlet in Camarines Sur. However, no credible news reports link Pineda with the politicians mentioned in the video.
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‘Propaganda’: Rodriguez laughed off the claim made in the video, calling it “fake news.” He said the POGO accusation was just one of the “illogical propaganda” proliferated against their team even before they announced their candidacies.
Fuentebella also denied the accusations in an interview with a local radio station in Naga City on July 19.
He said that he opposes POGOs, adding that he is one of the vice chairpersons of the committee on games and amusements in Congress investigating illegal POGO operations. Fuentebella said it was “funny” to find his name linked to POGOs.
Fuentebella also wondered why a certain public figure in Pampanga was involved in the video. He suspects that it might be connected to the rivalry for the possession of an STL franchise in Camarines Sur. The congressman, however, did not directly mention the parties involved.
“Kung may dai pagkakaintindihan, ibabalita po. Garo may muyang magkua katong prangkisa, iyo na po ini. Nagulat lang po ako nakadamay pa ako (If there is a misunderstanding, it will be reported. It seems like someone wants to grab its franchise, that is it. I’m just surprised I got dragged to this),” Fuentebella said in the interview. – 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 also an Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow of Rappler for 2024.
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