A video on Facebook (FB) with nearly half a million views claims lawyer Larry Gadon has “succeeded” in his longstanding petition to rename the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to Manila International Airport (MIA). Not true.
This erroneous claim on NAIA’s name change has been debunked repeatedly by VERA Files Fact Check since 2018.
Then National Historical Commission of the Philippines executive director Ludovico Badoy told VERA Files in 2018 that Congress needs to enact a law to rename the airport.
But to date, there is no law reverting the name of the main gateway to the country to MIA.
The false video was published on July 3 by 16-day old FB page Duterte News Info. It carried the caption: “Just In : Malacanang Goodnews Pres Bbm Naia Papalitan Na Atty.gadon Pinakita Ebdensya D1lawan Iyak (Pres Bbm Naia will be replaced Atty.gadon showed evidence Dilawan cried).”
Duterte News Info’s untrue FB post has obtained over 27,000 reactions and 2,500 comments and was shared 1,600 times by netizens. Social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle shows at least 35 FB pages and public FB groups published the same erroneous clip and caption starting July 2.
BACKSTORY
The video surfaced three days after Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. filed a bill seeking to rename NAIA to Ferdinand E. Marcos International Airport, in honor of the father of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Cited by Teves as the basis of his proposed legislation is another oft-repeated false claim crediting the creation of NAIA to the late dictator. Official records disprove this, showing that the airport has existed since 1948. Marcos Sr. only became president in 1965. (See VERA FILES FACT CHECK: NAIA is NOT a Marcos project)
In a July 7 FB Live, Gadon declared he was not in favor of Teves’ proposal to name the airport after Marcos, saying it was “self-serving” for the son and namesake of the late strongman. He maintained his position to revert to NAIA’s original name of Manila International Airport.
Meanwhile, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said on July 6 that the Palace has no comment on the issue for now, as the bill is still in its “very early stages.”
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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.)
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