A YouTube channel pushed out twice this month a false claim that Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla has freed former senator Leila de Lima from detention.
The first erroneous video, uploaded on Feb. 12, bore the headline:
“NALOKO na! FPDU30 Gen BANTAG NAGULAT PBBM REMULLA PINALAYA PROTEKTOR BIG TIME DRUGLORD DE LIMA YARE (FOOLED! FPDU30 Gen BANTAG SHOCKED PBBM REMULLA RELEASED PROTECTOR BIGTIME DRUGLORD DE LIMA)!”
Ten days later, the channel uploaded a second video with another bogus headline:
“HALA KA! TRYDOR TALAGA! PINALAYA na! PBBM BOYING REMULLA PROTEKTOR DRUGLORD DE LIMA LALABAS NA YARI (OH NO! SUCH A TRAITOR! [He] released [her]! BOYING REMULLA PROTECTOR DRUGLORD DE LIMA WILL NOW COME OUT)!”
Remulla did not release De Lima, who has been under police custody since February 2017 on drug-related charges.
She remains detained at Camp Crame as the hearings on her case continue.
Contents of both videos did not support the claim. The Feb. 12 video played an unrelated audio clip of a narrator talking about a possible country visit of Japanese lawmakers to the Philippines, as well as a vlogger commenting on the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign.
Meanwhile, the Feb. 22 video had the narrator talking about the ongoing probe of the International Criminal Court into former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. A vlogger also discussed Remulla’s Feb. 20 statement where the Justice secretary said he would not object if the camp of De Lima made moves for her release by filing a petition for habeas corpus.
The false videos came out shortly before the sixth anniversary of De Lima’s detention on Feb. 24. Despite several witnesses recanting their allegations of the opposition lawmaker’s involvement in the illegal drug trade since April 2022, she remains behind bars.
The two untrue videos by YouTube channel JONZ TV (created on Jan. 7, 2020), which has a history of publishing disinformation, collectively garnered 5,158 views as of writing. The links also reached Facebook groups like Pres. Duterte & Cong. Marcoleta Supporters (July 29, 2020), GEN. BANTAG for SENATOR (Nov. 9, 2022) and SOLID DDS News Report (August 27, 2020).
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)