Posts on Facebook (FB) and TikTok falsely claimed that a photo from the 2018 bridge aesthetic guideline of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is the original design of the collapsed Cabagan-Santa Maria bridge as proposed during the Aquino administration.
A reader sent a March 2 FB post for verification through VERA Files’ Messenger Misinformation Tipline. The post showed a comparison of the bridge’s design between the Aquino and the Duterte administrations, and bore the text:
“LOOK:Cabagan-Sta. Maria Bridge sa Isabela. Ito ang original design after palitan ng Duterte admin (This is the original design after it was changed by the Duterte administration)!”
This is false. The photo used to represent the supposed bridge design during the Aquino administration was from a “visual glossary” of the DPWH that was meant to illustrate and define terminologies in its bridge aesthetic guidebook.
A Google reverse image search revealed that aside from a DPWH department order in 2018 that formalized the guideline, the photo was used by an FB page in 2021, claiming it was a picture of a supposed “Rise Cotta Bridge 1” project in Lucena City.
The photo in the guideline has no label identifying it as either the Lucena or Isabela bridge.
VERA Files Fact Check reached out to one of the bridge designers but has yet to receive a response. As of writing, no copy of the original bridge design has been made public, either by the designer or the DPWH.
The erroneous claims circulated four days after the Isabela bridge collapsed and barely a month after its construction was completed.
The posts uploaded by FB users and by pages Van Speaks (created July 21, 2019), JIL Review TV (created May 13, 2021), Lalaban Tayo (April 18, 2014) and Metro Manila Subway ATBP (created March 21, 2018) have collectively garnered 1,900 reactions, 794 comments and 1200 shares
The TikTok post has amassed a total of 1,421 likes, 1016 comments, 105 bookmarks and 71 shares.
