No, this is not a photo of Enrile in a wheelchair

A photo montage which has been shared tens of thousands of times on social media contains an image that purports to show Senate candidate Juan Ponce Enrile in a wheelchair, which the caption claims is a gimmick linked to an ongoing corruption case. The image has been doctored from a stock photo of an injured man in a wheelchair.

In this February 10, 2019 Facebook post, which has been shared more than 32,000 times, the doctored picture of Enrile is part of a four-picture montage of images showing well-known politicians—who have all faced corruption charges—in wheelchairs.

The photograph in the bottom left corner shows Enrile apparently sitting in a wheelchair with his arm in a sling.

Enrile, who is 95, has been charged with plunder but a 2015 Supreme Court ruling allowed him to post bail on health grounds. Here is a transcript of the court decision.

Enrile, a former Senate president, is running in May’s elections as a senatorial candidate.

A reverse image search traced the image of Enrile, who has previously expressed support for President Rodrigo Duterte, back to a royalty-free stock image posted on the website of Shutterstock, an American stock photography provider.

Below is a screenshot of the photo on the Shutterstock website:

Key details in the doctored photo and the original image are the same—for example, the man is wearing blue checkered pants, a neck brace and has one leg in a white cast.

An additional reverse image search traced the photo of Enrile’s face, which has been added on top of the original stock image of a man in a wheelchair, back to this photo tweeted by ABS-CBN in 2018.

Comments such as the one below indicate that some Facebook users believed that Enrile was actually in the doctored photo:

The image in the top left shows former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was charged with plunder but acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2016.

The photo was taken in 2011 at Manila airport, when Arroyo, who was then facing election fraud charges, was trying to fly to Hong Kong for medical treatment but was blocked from leaving the country by the Department of Justice, which issued a hold departure order against her.

Arroyo is currently the House Speaker and can be seen in this 21 February, 2019 post on the official House of Representatives website at a ribbon cutting event, where she is not using a wheelchair.

The top right image in the misleading Facebook post is a 2004 AFP photograph of former president Joseph Estrada, who was convicted of plunder in September 2007 but pardoned by then-president Arroyo less than a month later.

Below is a screenshot of the AFP photograph:

Estrada is currently Manila mayor.

The bottom right is a 2017 AFP photograph of Imelda Marcos, the wife of deceased dictator Ferdinand Marcos. She was convicted in 2018 of graft for funneling $200 million through Swiss foundations in the 1970s, but has said she will appeal the decision.

Below is a screenshot of the AFP image:

Imelda Marcos is now congresswoman for the second district of Ilocos Norte.

The misleading photo montage was also posted on the Facebook account of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Quezon City, a left-leaning political party.

The photo has been shared by different Facebook groups and pages, most of whom oppose Duterte, and have nearly 650,000 followers between them.

 — AFP Philippines