A graphic circulating on Facebook (FB) claiming Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada wants to ban the United States National Basketball Association (NBA) from the country is satire.
Posted on Oct. 19, the news card says the senator wants to ban the American NBA to boost the country’s professional basketball league, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The graphic carried the headline: “SEN. JINGGOY ESTRADA SUGGESTING TO BAN NBA IN THE COUNTRY TO HELP REVIVE PBA.”
Estrada made no such suggestion. The graphic is a spoof of news cards published by the Manila Bulletin.
On the upper left corner of the photo is the text: “PAUNAWA SA TANGA: SATIRE LANG TOH HOY (NOTICE TO STUPID PEOPLE: THIS IS JUST SATIRE),” written in small font.
It also featured Estrada’s official senate photo juxtaposed with an image of NBA player LeBron James taken during a 2021 game.
Several netizens believed the graphic to be true, with some commenting that the senator is foolish. Others said he should focus on solving the crisis in the country and ban corrupt leaders and plunderers instead.
Recently, concerns about Filipino basketball players being “poached” by overseas leagues have been raised. PBA Chair Ricky Vargas said recent events of players accepting offers to play in Japan hurt the national team training development and the local league.
The satirical graphic came out a day after Estrada drew flak over his statement about banning Korean and foreign-made telenovelas in helping the country’s “ailing” film industry. He later clarified that he had no plans to do so and only said it “out of frustration.”
The post by the FB page UAAP Basketball 24/7 (created on Sept. 13, 2012) garnered 1,500 reactions, 75 comments and 201 shares. Some netizens reposted the graphic and shared these on various FB groups like VP LENI SUPPORTERS (June 23, 2013), ABS CBN SUPPORTERS (March 8, 2015) and FilAm Voter (Dec. 7, 2011).
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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.)
