Senator Hontiveros ‘fake-zoned’ on social media

Senator Risa Hontiveros INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

If you believe everything said on social media, this senator and her actions would be the stuff of urban legends.

In just a few days, the busy lawmaker “filed” a bill to delete the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos from history books, planned a hunger strike against his burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani, and sought, seemingly on a whim, to require the tattooed to cover their ink.

But the real Sen. Risa Hontiveros said she has nothing to do with these frivolous, if not overly dramatic proposals, which do not even exist.

The subject lately of online stories that exaggerate her advocacies, the neophyte senator hopes the public can separate fact from fiction, discern the genuine from the fake.

“I hope it will become the netizens’ second nature to fact-check the information they get online before sharing it. These days, it is worse to be fake-zoned, than be friend-zoned,” she said.

Last week, the website okd2.com published back-to-back stories on Hontiveros’ actions related to the planned Marcos burial at Libingan, which she has vehemently opposed.

One story quoted an anonymous aide of the senator saying she was planning to go on a hunger strike to convince the Supreme Court to reverse its decision allowing the dictator’s Libingan burial.

Another okd2.com story by a certain “May Topac” claimed that Hontiveros’ “obsession” against the Marcoses has driven her to draft a bill to remove the Marcos name from history books.

“I’m concerned that there are people and groups that intend to deliberately mislead the public. I’m not sure what their real intentions are, but they’ve come up with the most absurd stories,” Hontiveros told the Inquirer on Saturday.

These stories have been shared online. okd2.com, which claims to “publish only the most interesting news stories that our readers love to read,” posts a disclaimer that says “in very rare cases,” it publishes “some fiction to entertain our readers.”

“Sometimes it cracks me up, but what is worrying is that many people take this for gospel truth. So many people end up in the fake zone,” said Hontiveros.

In fact, Hontiveros has proposed bills that make sense to ordinary folks. One bill would double maternity leave from 60 to 120 days. Another seeks to raise nutrition support for Filipino children in their first 1,000 days of life. A third bill would give tax reductions as a form of reward to hospitals that do not require deposits from patients before providing them care or treatment.