Former Vice President Leni Robredo refuted on social media on Tuesday that she didn’t bring a camera and didn’t set up a meeting for her latest trip to Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Erwin Tulfo.

In response to tweets regarding her meeting with Tulfo, Robredo stated that her team sent an official letter of request for the visit, and his office scheduled their meeting for August 26.

“The truth: We wrote a formal letter addressed to Secretary Tulfo requesting for a courtesy visit. The OSEC staff got in touch with us and gave us a schedule. I went with Angat Buhay (Executive Director) Raffy Magno. Not one photographer from us,” Robredo tweeted.

On Tuesday morning, the hashtag “Leni” was trending on Twitter.
Robredo, who is currently the president of her non-governmental organization, Angat Buhay, stated that the images of the meeting were not taken by her staff.

“The only photographer present was the DSWD photographer. We just shared Sec Erwin Tulfo’s facebook post. Stop spreading fake news,” she added.

Robredo previously stated that she met with Tulfo to “present the programs of Angat Buhay and to explore possible areas of collaboration.”

In a second Post on facebook, the former vice president emphasized the need of dealing with misinformation, particularly on social media.

Robredo stated that Malaysian Members of Parliament Maria Chin Abdullah and Kelvin Yee Lee, as well as former Thai Member of Parliament Pannika Wannich, discussed how different ASEAN countries deal with misinformation.

“Disinformation has played a big role in changing the political landscape all around the world, including in elections,” Robredo said, “While this problem grows at a rapid pace, we find hope as efforts are made to address this issue as an existential threat to democracy, public accountability, and people’s participation in governance.”