After disappearing from public view for almost two weeks, President Rodrigo Duterte appeared on April 12 in his regular “Talk to the People” address, but made three inaccurate claims in his 20-minute opening remarks. VERA Files Fact Check reviewed his claims and identified one false, one flip-flop, and another that needs context.
Media personality Raffy Tulfo was wrong in claiming that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has prevented the private sector from directly purchasing jabs against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from vaccine manufacturers.
In justifying his move to distribute free ivermectin, a drug intended to treat parasitic infestations, AnaKalusugan Rep. Michael “Mike” Defensor claimed that the United States (U.S.) allows it to be used “off-label” as a treatment for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This is misleading.
As the country launched on March 1 its long-awaited vaccination program against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), conflicting pronouncements from the Palace persist on when President Rodrigo Duterte, at 75, will be inoculated, and whether it would be in public.
Last month, Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy denied the existence of a group of indigenous peoples in the country referred to as “Lumad,” wrongly claiming that it is a “made up word” of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its allied organizations to forward their agenda.
After a five-day delay, the much-awaited first shipment of 600,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China arrived in the country on Sunday, Feb. 28. Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque Jr. earlier said the Feb. 23 delivery was already cast in stone, but it wound up being delayed because manufacturers wanted an indemnity agreement.
In a video statement on Feb. 21, SAGIP Party-list Representative Rodante Marcoleta mistakenly claimed that teachers sit last in the government’s vaccination program against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
It has been 23 years since the Department of Health conducted its largest inoculation drive involving 22.9 million Filipinos aged 9 to 14 for the measles-rubella supplemental immunization activity, according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire.
Voting unanimously, the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), dismissed “the entire electoral protest” that former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. filed against Vice President Leni Robredo to wrestle the country’s second highest post.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) shared on Facebook (FB) a column published in The Manila Times that bore inaccurate claims about the late senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.’s death and supposed ties to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
