A video on YouTube is erroneously claiming that Sen. Risa Hontiveros has been imprisoned for allegedly bribing a Senate witness to testify against Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader Apollo Quiboloy. This is not true.
On June 25, a YouTube channel published the spurious video with the headline:
“KAKAPASOK LANG! 1 MILYON BINAYAD NI RIZA ! DINALA AKO SA CONDO NI RIZA PEKENG TESTIGO NI RIZA! (Just in! Risa paid one million pesos! I was taken to Risa’s condo says Risa’s the fake witness!)
Presenting the claim as a question – a tactic often employed by various disinformation campaigns – the following text can also be seen on the thumbnail:
“RIZA MAKUKULONG? TINATAKOT AKO NI RIZA? 1 MILYON BINAYAD! LALAYA NA SI QUIBOLOY! (Risa is going to jail? I’m being threatened by Risa? Paid one million! Quiboloy will be free!)”
The 31-minute video showed a person reacting to the so-called exposé made by an alleged witness named Michael Maurillo (alias “Rene”) who claimed he was paid by Hontiveros to speak out against Quiboloy and the Dutertes.
Both the headline and thumbnail are clickbait. There are no court decisions declaring Hontiveros is guilty of bribery, nor are there any warrants ordering the arrest of the senator.
In a June 25 statement, Hontiveros hit back against the “falsehoods” being spread by the alleged Senate witness, saying she has reason to believe Maurillo was “coerced or paid off” to disrupt the ongoing investigation against Quiboloy.
“Our office has mountains of evidence to prove that the individual made-up claims. All witnesses presented during the Quiboloy Senate hearings freely and voluntarily offered their testimonies and the evidence they carried,” the Senator said.
Hontiveros added that her office is preparing legal action against Maurillo.
The video surfaced after a U.S. court found Amanda Estopare, a KOJC finance officer, guilty of visa fraud for falsifying immigration documents.
YouTube channel REACTION TV PH (created on Oct. 27, 2020) published the erroneous video, garnering over 13,100 online engagements and 241,000 views.
