'FAKE NEWS'

VP Robredo denies distributing spoiled meals to QC frontliners

Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday denied that donated hot meals distributed by her office to frontliners at a Quezon City hospital were spoiled and called out the Facebook user who posted such information.

"Our team delivering hot meals donated by private individuals said they never received such complaints," Robredo said on Facebook.

According to a now-deleted Facebook post by one Jacques Phillip,  Robredo's spokesman, Atty Barry Gutierrez, personally asked the frontliners at the Diliman Doctors Hospital, who supposedly received the donated meals, to be quiet about the incident.

An expat based in Angeles City, Pampanga, according to his profile, Phillip also said Robredo herself went to the hospital but its president refused to meet her.

In his post, Phillip asked netizens to "confirm, if possible" the "rumor around some campfires."

But according to Robredo, neither she nor Gutierrez went to the hospital.

"I never went to this hospital. My spokesperson, Atty Barry Gutierrez said he has never visited any hospital during the entire duration of the ECQ/GCQ nor ever called this particular hospital," she said.

Robredo also said Phillip should've verified the information before posting it on social media.

"If there was no malice, you should have checked first before posting. You should know that posting fake news makes you criminally liable," she said as she urged netizens to report Phillip -- and those who shared his post -- to authorities.

"Please report this fake news peddler who is trying to skip liability with his 'confirm, if possible' line," she said.

"Take screen shots of everything, including those who reposted because we will go after all of them."

GMA News Online has reached out to Phillip on Facebook for his comment and was awaiting his response as of posting time. --KBK, GMA News