Two YouTube videos erroneously claim that Sen. Risa Hontiveros has been sentenced to life imprisonment over her alleged involvement in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) bonus controversy. This is not true and has been debunked many times.
The videos were published on Feb. 25 and 26. One of them bore the untrue headline:
“LAGOT KA NGAYON RISA HONTIVEROS DI NAKALIG-TAS (sic) sa PASAB0G ni VP SARA SEN TULFO EBIDENSYA NILABAS na
(You’re in trouble now. Risa Hontiveros failed to escape from the bombshell of Vice President Sara Duterte and Sen. [Raffy] Tulfo. Evidence revealed.)”
The thumbnail is a photo of Duterte and Tulfo holding up a piece of paper, supposedly the evidence against Hontiveros. It includes the following text:
“KU-LONG (sic) KA NGAYON. ITO ANG BANGUNGOT SA BUHAY NI RISA HONTIVEROS. (Jail for you. This is the nightmare in the life of Risa Hontiveros.)”
Neither video – one that ran for 15 minutes, and the other for 30 minutes – mentions the false claim. It only made baseless allegations that Hontiveros was supposedly hired by First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos to attack the Duterte family.
Hontiveros is not involved in the controversy. VERA Files Fact Check has repeatedly debunked this claim. (Read VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Hontiveros NOT involved in 2014 PhilHealth bonus mess)
In a 2018 email to VERA Files Fact Check, the state insurance agency said the lawmaker was not named in the Commission on Audit decision disallowing the release of the 2014 benefits worth P83 million to PhilHealth executives and employees. Hontiveros joined its Board after the bonus scandal shook the agency.
In addition to the false claim, the two videos also alleged that an unnamed court had issued the decision and Vice President Sara Duterte presented evidence to prove Hontiveros’ involvement.
No court has recently ordered the arrest of Hontiveros over the 2014 PhilHealth irregularity. Neither did Duterte nor Tulfo show any so-called evidence to confirm the lawmaker’s links to the controversy.
This video emerged after the lawmaker pressed Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader and televangelist Apollo Quiboloy to attend the Senate inquiry on the allegations of human trafficking and sexual abuse against him.
YouTube channels PINAS BALITA TV (created on March 22, 2022) and PINAS NEWS INSIDER (Dec. 26, 2015) published the videos, collectively garnering over 125,000 views and 4,600 online interactions.
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