A Facebook (FB) page and a YouTube video falsely claimed that cardiologist and social media personality Willie Ong, who is battling a cancerous tumor called sarcoma, has passed away.
“Fake news. Kakatapos lang namin noong Friday ng 2nd cycle of chemo. Good response naman (Fake news. We just finished the second cycle of chemo[therapy] last Friday. Good response so far),” Ong told VERA Files Fact Check in a Sept. 24 Viber message.
The erroneous posts on FB and YouTube, published from Sept. 19-20, appeared three weeks after Ong disclosed his battle against cancer. Part of the death hoax read:
“Namaalam na! Bumuhos ang Luha ng Pamilya ni Doc Willie Dahil sa Sinapit Nito |
Isang malungkot na balita ang pumukaw sa puso ng marami matapos ang pagyao ni Doc Willie Ong. Ang kanyang pamilya ay nagluluksa sa pagpanaw ng mahal sa buhay, at ang kanilang mga luha ay nagpatunay ng lalim ng kanilang pighati.
(He passed away! Doc Willie Ong’s family in tears because of his plight | Sad news captured the hearts of the people after the passing of Doc Willie Ong. His family is grieving the death of their loved one, and their tears prove the depth of their sorrow)”
To support its false claim, the death hoax used a thumbnail that combined multiple images to make it look like Ong passed away. VERA Files Fact Check used reverse image search and found out these images are not related.
Note: Click the photos to reveal their original source.
The posts by FB page Showbizfinds (created on March 19, 2022) and YouTube channel CELEBRITY ISSUES (created on Jan. 24, 2022) garnered a total of over 10,291 reactions, 824 comments, 519,733 views, and 101 shares.
