Amid the massive anti-corruption protests on Sept. 21, netizens shared a video showing a burning house supposedly owned by contractors Curlee and Sarah Discaya. This is false. The clip shows a building on fire in Indonesia.
Facebook users started posting on Sept. 21 an 11-second clip showing a building engulfed by fire with this accompanying text:
“BAHAY BATO NI DISCAYA? Sinunog na Bahay ni SARAH DISCAYA (Is this Discaya’s house? Sarah Discaya’s house burned.”
One of the posts bore this caption:
“Bahay ng Discaya sinunug (sic) na (Discaya’s house now burned).”
This is not true. The video shows a council building set ablaze by protesters in Indonesia last month, not the house of the Discayas, who are under investigation over the anomalous flood control projects with the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Reverse image search led VERA Files to a video uploaded by a TikTok user on Aug. 30. Its caption read: “DPRD Mataram.” DPRD refers to the “Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah” or Indonesia’s Regional House of Representatives.
Further research showed that the building in the video was the three-story West Nusa Tenggara DPRD building located in Mataram City and burned down on Aug. 30. This is just among the council buildings that were stormed and set on fire in Indonesia last month due to political tensions that escalated after a police car hit and killed a motorcycle taxi driver in one of the protests.
The video with the false context circulated the same day rallyists flocked to Luneta Park and the EDSA People Power Monument for the “Trillion Peso Rally” to demand accountability from corrupt government officials.
While commotion between police forces and masked men happened in Mendiola and Recto in Manila, there are no reports of protesters setting the house of the Discayas on fire.
VERA Files has debunked other disinformation related to the controversial contractor couple.
Four false posts by FB users collectively garnered 18,013 reactions, 40 comments, 2,506 shares and 2,801,957 views.
