When pictures paint a thousand (fake) words
People zoom into pixels like FBI agents in a crime thriller, convinced every shadow is proof of a grand conspiracy.
Photographs by Yummie Dingding
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. died again on the Internet last week. Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, he inconveniently showed up alive at the Araw ng Kagitingan rites in Mt. Samat on 9 April.
That did not stop online sleuths from confidently declaring that the photographs of the President from the event were AI-generated. They were allegedly recycled from 2025, staged by Malacañang, or perhaps filmed inside a secret government basement beside the tallano gold vault.
BARE-EYED beneath the April sun, the President leads the Araw ng Kagitingan rites.
LOOKIE, the President sports a sunglasses like a fashionista.
Sadly for them, details exist.
The 2026 photos showed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wearing sunglasses. In 2025, he was not. Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. was absent this year, replaced beside the President by Lt. Gen. Rommel Roldan.
Mt. Samat’s cross was under construction in 2026. The officials were positioned differently. Even the diplomats shifted places like extras trying to hit new blocking marks.
THAT’s AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. at his side during the wreath-laying ceremony.
BRAWNER is absent and in his place is Lt. Gen. Rommel Roldan.
