A video circulating online shows the Cagayan de Oro City Council supposedly declaring veteran journalist Jessica Soho as persona non grata in the city. The council did not pass such a resolution; the video was altered.
On Nov. 25, a Facebook page posted a 25-second clip of CDO City Councilor Edgar Cabanlas allegedly motioning for the declaration of Soho as unwelcome in the city due to her team’s report about the delayed construction of a mega health center in Sitio Macanhan.
Cabanlas can be heard in the video as saying:
“The city council of Cagayan de Oro to pass a resolution declaring Jessica Soho as a persona non grata for exposing the alleged anomaly in the construction of the mega center in Macanhan.”
Several netizens in the comment section criticized the council for supposedly preventing corrupt practices from being exposed.
The video is edited. The CDO City Council did not pass such a resolution. In the unedited video, Cabanlas was actually addressing false reports that they had declared the journalist unwelcome in the city.
The city council’s official FB page livestreamed its uncut 20th Regular Session on Nov. 24.
At the 33:29-minute mark, Cabanlas started addressing an earlier post, uploaded by the same FB page that posted the edited video, claiming that they are intending to declare the journalist as persona non grata.
Cabanlas said:
“My picture appeared in the Facebook post that states that the city council of Cagayan de Oro was intending to pass a resolution declaring Jessica Soho as a persona non grata for exposing the alleged anomaly in the construction of mega center in Macanhan.
I do not know what is the purpose of that post but it could be that the intention was to destroy this administration. Second, it is possible that the intention was to destroy my person. Third, it could be that the purpose was to confuse the people of the real issue.”
The phrase “was intending” and the full context were omitted in the circulating clip.
Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho’s official FB page also posted a statement clarifying the matter.
The altered video circulated more than a week after the Nov. 16 episode of the program where it delved deep into the alleged corruption within the administration’s health centers. One of the projects mentioned was the delayed construction of the Mega Health Center in Sitio Macanhan in Cagayan de Oro City.
VERA Files has debunked other disinformation related to the veteran journalist.
The video posted by the FB page Brgy. Outpost (created on June 5) has so far garnered 3,300 reactions, 838 comments, 2,100 shares and 465,000 views.
