Shortly after the PDP-Laban party held a rally in Cebu, a viral video spread online allegedly with a huge crowd attending the event. A reverse image search revealed the video was taken last year.
On Feb. 23, several social media pages published a video – which was also sent by a reader through VERA Files Fact Check’s Misinformation Tip Line for verification – supposedly showing the crowd turnout at the rally. One of the videos’ captions read:
“CEBU DUTERTE PARIN. walang hakot, walang Ayuda, voluntaryong pumonta ang MGA CEBUANO para ipakita ang boung supporta para Kay Tatay Digong and SARA DUTERTE at SA Team PDP LABAN. Patunay na mahal ng buong sambayanan ang mga DUTERTE
(Cebu is still for Duterte. No one was pressured to attend, no aid needed. Cebuanos voluntarily went to show full support for [former president] Rodrigo Duterte, [Vice President] Sara Duterte and the team of PDP-Laban. It truly shows people love the Dutertes).”
The 25-second video shows a cheering crowd partially bathed in pink lights while a pro-Duterte election campaign song played in the background.
The video with the erroneous claim was not taken during PDP-Laban’s rally in Cebu. The footage is of a concert that happened last year.
Facebook (FB) page Cebu ni bai originally published the aerial drone video in February last year, showing a massive crowd attending the concert of worship music band Planetshakers in Cebu.
Ironically, the same FB page republished the clip as a TikTok video this month and added the following superimposed text, “Duterte pa rin sa Cebu (Cebu is still for Duterte),” misleading thousands of people into believing the video was taken recently.
Photos published by the official FB page of PDP-Laban on Feb. 23 had people wearing green shirts – the vice president’s campaign colors – as they attended the party’s Cebu rally. Absent were the pink lights as seen in the video with the untrue caption.
The spurious videos were published by at least two FB pages – The Golden Views (created on Nov. 12, 2019) and Davaoeños Duterte Defender (March 11, 2017) – collectively garnering over 3,200 reactions, 400 comments, 2,000 shares and 104,000 views. It was also published on TikTok by user Langga ng Davao, receiving more than 24,900 online interactions and 182,000 views.
