Facebook page Alpha Omega World Development Marshall Programme continues to mislead readers by rehashing an outdated report on the bogus plunder case against former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and six others, including former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.
The page, which claims to be owned by an “International Organization supporting the five humanitarian agencies of the United Nations,” reengaged on June 16, 2019, foisting anew a recycled Jan. 11, 2017 pirated UNTV footage on its followers.
The UNTV report details the alleged Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) documents that “prove” Aquino, Roxas, Senators Leila de Lima and Franklin Drilon, former Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, former BSP Governor Armando Tetangco, and Treasury Department chief dealer Lorelei Fernandez underhandedly shipped US$141 in gold bars to Thailand.
On the Alpha Omega Facebook page, the video was misleadingly captioned with:
“IKALAT NATIN TONG (sic) MGA KAWATAN (LET’S EXPOSE THESE THIEVES) !!”
The BSP, also in January 2017, had already belied the documents, calling the plunder charges “spurious.” UNTV also reported on this clarification.
This is not the first time that legitimate news reports have been used by websites, social media pages or accounts to spread fake, false or misleading information.
The news report used by the Alpha Omega Facebook page was part of a Jan. 10, 2017 episode of UNTV’s Ito Ang Balita. However, that particular news segment appears to have been trimmed out of the video uploaded by the news organization’s official YouTube account. It later on became unavailable, even with a link.
Alpha Omega’s post is still circulating online and has been reshared 55 times since 2017.
On its Facebook About page, Alpha Omega links to a website of the same name that makes several unsupported, elaborate and dubious claims. For instance, it claims to be headed by a certain “Tiburcio Villamor Marcos” who is supposedly the “youngest son” of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. with his alleged “first wife”, so-called Princess of Spain, Enimecia Cruzen Villamor Tagean Tallano.
No official sources nor legitimate news reports validate these claims.
The website prominently features a slideshow of photos which includes a few ones of Tiburcio with former first lady Imelda Marcos and her son, ex-senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., during the observance of the 100th birthday of the late strongman in 2017.
More, the Alpha Omega organization, which runs the website and Facebook page, falsely claims to be the international entity that funds several United Nations (UN) agencies, including the UN Economic and Social Council.
The UN is actually funded by the contributions of its Member States based on each one’s economic standing and capacity to pay.
This is the fifth time VERA Files Fact Check has debunked viral posts of the same topic and nature since November 2017. Two were also found to be misleading, while the other two were fake.
(See VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Pro-Marcos page MISLEADS with outdated report on Aquino plunder case; VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Website MISLEADS with outdated story on plunder rap vs Aquino; Website posts FAKE report rehashing outdated story on plunder case vs Aquino and allies; and THIS WEEK IN FAKE NEWS: Aquino, allies DID NOT transfer Marcos gold to foreign company)
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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