The Presidential Communications Office, or PCO, on Saturday, retracted a false claim that it had been four decades “since the last time a sitting President of the Philippines” visited Saudi Arabia.
“Forty years since former President Ferdinand E. Marcos (Sr.) visited Saudi Arabia, the last time a sitting President of the Philippines traveled to the country, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited the Filipino community in Riyadh to personally express his gratitude for their significant contributions,” part of the PCO’s deleted Facebook claimed.
A few hours later, Malacañang issued an erratum in a new Facebook post.
“In a previous version of this caption, we erroneously stated that President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.’s visit to Saudi Arabia in 1982 was the last visit by a sitting Philippine president,” PCO said in another post.
“We wish to clarify that both President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and President Rodrigo Duterte in [sic] also visited Saudi Arabia in 2009 and 2017 respectively.”
Noticeable was the misplaced “in” in the erratum of the PCO, an office tasked with combating fake news on matters about the government, particularly the Office of the President.