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VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Report claiming Bam Aquino fears Sara Duterte presidency NOT TRUE

Website News File PH (phfilenews.info) published July 20 a false report claiming Sen. Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino is “very scared” of Davao City mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio succeeding her father President Rodrigo Duterte.

The story’s content, a 20-minute clip pirated from a 58-minute CNN Philippines program The Source, does not show Aquino expressing such sentiment, rendering untrue the headline:

EXCLUSSIVE [sic]: BAM AQUINO TAKOT NA TAKOT AT DI MATANGGAP NA SI SARA DUTERTE ANG SUSUNOD NA PRESIDENTE! PANOORIN (EXCLUSIVE: Bam Aquino very scared and cannot accept Sara Duterte will be the next president! Watch)!

The clip showed the opposition senator questioning the anti-political dynasty provisions in the draft charter submitted by the consultative committee to the president, claiming they excludethe presidency and vice presidency from the provisions’ coverage

The draft charter prohibits an elected official’s relatives up to the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to run for the same position the following election, and allows such relatives to run for only one local and national position simultaneously. See VERA FILES FACT SHEET: Draft charter defines, bans political dynasties

In the clip, Con-com chair Reynato Puno had used the Dutertes as an example, saying under the proposed charter, Sara cannot succeed her father.

News File PH, created July 18, published the false story a day after Aquino raised his concerns on the anti-political dynasty provisions in another episode of The Source.

The story could have reached more than 22,000 people and has received over 650 interactions on Facebook. Youtube channel DU30 News, which uploaded the pirated video, was created in March 2016.

(Guided by the code of principles of the
International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false
claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and
debunks them with factual evidence.
Find out more
about this initiative
and our methodology
.)