A story published by socialcastph.info carrying a fabricated exchange between President Rodrigo Duterte and Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle is making rounds once again on social media.
The fake report, first published in November 2017 with the headline “Look: ‘PRES.DUTERTE TO CARDINAL TAGLE: Your Job is to Educate the Faithful, My Job is to Eradicate Those who are Killing the Faithful,'” features a July 2016 Malacañang file photo of Tagle’s courtesy visit to the then-newly-inaugurated president, and a fake transcript of their meeting.
The Presidential Communications Operations Office, which releases materials about the president’s engagements, did not publish a transcript of that July 2016 meeting. No legitimate news outfit has also published a report that reflects socialcastph.info’s claim.
Facebook detected the fake story circulating on social media once again a week after Duterte made the controversial statement “God is stupid” during a June 22 conference in Davao. That same day, a report came out about the faithful urging Tagle to speak up about Duterte’s comments against the Catholic Church.
The story could have reached more than a million people, its biggest traffic generators from social media being President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos Loyalist and Alan Peter Cayetano Supporters International. Socialcastph.info was created in July 2017.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
