FALSE: Mar Roxas urges consumers to suffer through water crisis

The Facebook page Don't Me claimed in a post on March 16 that senatorial candidate Mar Roxas is urging consumers to just suffer through the water crisis since they are still "alive" anyway.

His supposed statement reads: "Tiis-tiis lang po muna 'yung mga walang tubig sa ngayon, buhay pa naman kayo 'di ba?" (To those who have no water right now, just suffer through it. Anyway, you are all still alive, right?)

The post has gained around 1,000 reactions, 200 comments, and 240 shares as of writing. Other Facebook pages such as Defend Duterte and Fight4Digong have also been circulating the post. Readers e-mailed it to Rappler for verification.

This claim is false. Mar Roxas' camp maintained the claim is not true.

"Yes definitely it's fake news, it's completely illogical for Mar, an advocate of consumer protection to say those things," Mar's campaign manager Edgar Erice confirmed to Rappler in a text message.

Roxas' camp also explained the water crisis is not about the water shortage but is instead "a shortage of competence on the part of Manila Water."

In an interview on March 20 in Batangas City Market, the senatorial candidate was also quoted as saying the crisis is a result of long-term events that need investigation.

Rappler asked the Facebook page Don't Me for the source of its post. It said the post was a reshare from Facebook Page Mocha Uson Blog, but there has not been a post on the page about Roxas' supposed statement since the crisis erupted on March 7. The page Don't Me could not provide a link to the supposed post on Uson's page either.

Meanwhile, the photo of Roxas in the post is a manipulated photo of Rappler's instaquote on Roxas' statement on NAIA's bullet-planting scandal in 2015.

Read the full fact-check article on Rappler.com.

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