An April 17 report by bopols.com claims 78.4 percent of active Catholic priests in the country who were polled are willing to pay taxes if they can waive their vow of celibacy.
Bopols.com is a website created in 2009. It was bought and turned into a satirical website in March, making the report a spoof.
It said a survey was supposedly conducted by Catholic radio station Radio Veritas after House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said that he will craft a bill collecting “income and business taxes” from churches.
The story was posted eight days after Alvarez said he wants the proposal to collect taxes from church-run schools and businesses be part of the Constitutional amendments the House of Representatives is working on.
The biggest traffic generators on social media are Team Duterte for Federalism, President Duterte Supporters and Philippine News Courier, and could have reached almost 430,000 people.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation . Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
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