Busted: Robredo filed case vs. Lugaw Queen franchise? It’s fake news!

Vice President Leni Robredo has allegedly filed a case against the Lugaw Queen Franchise, claimed a report that has been circulating on Facebook this week. The fact that it came from the known fake news site okd2.com made the claim suspicious, but it did not stop several Facebook pages from sharing the story.
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It has been shared by pages such as “Atty. Rody R. Duterte Supporters,” “Admin Fire 3.0,” and by some netizens.

Even blogger Rey Joseph Nieto, a.k.a. Thinking Pinoy, also shared the story, but with a caption saying that it was “hilarious” “satirical article.” His post has already been shared 1,800 times and reacted to 14,000 times.

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According to okd2.com, Robredo’s camp filed a cease and desist order against the Lugaw Queen Franchise on June 2. It was filed by the Vice President’s legal counsel, a certain Atty. Regina Fernandez, at the San Pablo City court. The case aimed to stop the franchise from using the term “lugaw queen” because it was reportedly Robredo’s trademark.

The article added that the Lugaw Queen franchise was founded in November 2014 by Erwin and Kimberly Aquino. It started with a small take-out counter in Santa Rosa City, where lugaw (porridge) is sold for P10.

Fernandez further added that, “No one is allowed to take the term lugaw queen away from the Vice President.” In response to Robredo’s case, the owners of the restaurant are reportedly seeking legal assistance from expert lawyers in trademark laws.

In an effort to verify okd2’s story, we looked into the story of the Lugaw Queen Franchise, because there is indeed one. However, what we found is not consistent with what okd2 claimed, making the story look more and more of a hoax.

According to a 2012 article from franchisemanila.com, Lugaw Queen started in November 2007 by the couple Sherwin and Beverly Aquino, which showed that okd2.com simply tried to change its story by changing up the real owners’ names. It added that the business’ first lugaw counter was in San Pablo City, not in Santa Rosa City, as per okd2’s claim.

It also became obvious that okd2.com simply copied the article from franchisemanila.com and made a few changes.

Moreover, the fact that Robredo’s alleged lawyer claimed that the Vice President had “lugaw queen” trademarked is likely throwing shade at the fact that the said term is being used by Robredo’s bashers. It started when Robredo cited “Lugawan for Leni” as one of the fundraising activities that her supporters started to help raise campaign funds for her.

While Thinking Pinoy made it clear that he believed the piece to be satirical, his commenters still took the story to be true.

Okd2’s disclaimer said that it “cannot guarantee the legitimacy of some of the information contributed to us. Now, it is clear that this piece about Robredo filing a case against the Lugaw Queen franchise is just one of the stories on the site that would need “additional research” as it presented “doubtful” information, as per its disclaimer.

Okd2.com is also the website behind other fake stories, such as those about former Pres. Noynoy Aquino, Mar Roxas, and Dinky Soliman facing graft charges in international court, Sen. Risa Hontiveros wanting to raise the senior citizen age requirement to 65 years old, Jim Paredes hating Pres. Duterte since their college days, and more.

Source: ( franchisemanila.com , news.abs-cbn.com )
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