MANILA — The May 2022 national elections should not be won based on misconceptions, Vice President Leni Robredo said Friday, as she urged supporters of her bid for the presidency to battle online disinformation.

Robredo admitted her supporters are "self-organizing" to print tarpaulins, produce campaign shirts, lead feeding programs, and other efforts to promote her candidacy.

"Gustong sabihin po nito taumbayan na ‘yung nagdedesisyon na hindi niya hahayaan masayang ang eleksyon na ‘to. Pero gaya po ng sabi ko, maghahabol pa tayo," said Robredo, who trailed behind her rival Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. in previous surveys on the presidency.

(This means the people decided that they will not let this election go to waste. But as I have said, we need to catch up.)

"Kaya kailangan po in the next 87 days gawin po natin lahat na magagawa natin para siguruhin natin na ‘yung lahat na problema sa disinformation, lahat ng panlilinlang, ay babasagin natin dahil ayaw po natin na ang eleksyon madedesisyunan sa maling pag-aakala," she told supporters in San Pablo, Laguna.

(This is why in the next 87 days, let us do everything we can to ensure that all problems with disinformation, all falsehoods are broken because we do not want the elections to be decided on misconceptions.)

Robredo is as the top target of disinformation in social media, a fact-checking group said earlier this month.

“Of the 200 claims that we curated, based on our initial analysis, majority of those are directed against presidential candidate and Vice President Leni Robredo," University of the Philippines' journalism professor Yvonne Chua told a Senate committee is reviewing laws amid increased use of social media and technology.

"Marami po talaga (there is a lot), every week, she is the biggest victim of disinformation or negative messaging, whether it’s about the typhoon, COVID-19 response, and all sorts," said Chua, who has been leading the collaborative fact-checking initiative Tsek.ph since the 2019 midterm election.

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Chua added that many posts benefit Marcos Jr.

Marcos Jr., who lost to Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential race, has denied tapping troll farms.

• 'Find me one': Marcos Jr. denies troll farms in campaign

In 2016, Marcos clinched some 440,000 votes in Laguna, compared to Robredo's around 390,000 votes.

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South of Manila, Laguna in 2019 was the fourth most vote-rich province with around 1.9 million voters.

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Asked if she thought she could flip the province in her favor, Robredo said, "At this stage in the campaign, masama para sa kandidato maging confident. Kaya kahit grabe ‘yung sigasig ng volunteers dito sa lahat na lugar, talagang ang tingin namin kailangan naming pagtrabahuhan pa nang husto."

"‘Yung klase ng volunteers ngayon wala nito noong 2016, so we are hoping for better results pero hindi kami magkakampante," she said in a chance interview in Calauan town.

(At this stage in the campaign, it's bad for a candidate to be confident. So even if the drive of our supporters in all areas is great, we still need to work hard. The kind of volunteers now did exist in 2016, so we are hoping for better results, but we will not get complacent.)