More than 35 Facebook (FB) pages and groups have resurfaced an old report about the Philippines’ oil and gas exploration agreement with an Israeli firm, passing it off as a recent achievement of the Duterte administration. This is misleading.
Shared from Feb. 14 to 19, the story is a 16-month-old report of website asianpolicy.press. Even in its first publishing in October 2018, it was deceptive, as it was copy pasted from an Oct. 18, 2018 CNN Philippines report on the country officially entering into an agreement with Israel-based firm Ratio Petroleum Ltd. to explore gas and oil deposits in the East Palawan Basin in the western Philippines.
The deal, signed on Oct. 17, 2018, was the first petroleum service contract signed by Duterte.
Asianpolicy.press also tweaked CNN Philippines’ headline, “PH inks deal with Israeli firm on oil exploration east of Palawan,” to instead read, “Duterte-led PH finally inks deal with Israeli firm on Palawan oil exploration.” Both carried as its thumbnail an October 2018 Department of Energy photo of Duterte signing the agreement.
Asianpolicy.press’ story, which could have reached over 2.1 million people, was reshared this month by mostly pro-Duterte FB accounts such as the pages Duterte Today, Duterteduterteduterte, and Support President Rodrigo Duterte All The Way Movement – Sprdatwm, which drew in the most traffic to the dubious post from social media.
Most of the comments on the posts comprised praises for Duterte for securing the deal with the Middle Eastern nation. A top comment read, “One of the benefits of open foreign policy. We maintain our dignity and gained more friends!”
The misleading post resurfaced shortly after Duterte announced on Feb. 11 the termination of the two-decade-old Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States.
Asianpolicy.press, created in August 2016, has previously been flagged by VERA Files Fact Check for publishing another plagiarized report about the former administration’s disaster response efforts, which was also misleadingly revived years after its initial publication. (SEE: VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Online posts MISLEAD with old story on Noynoy Aquino’s undistributed Yolanda funds)
(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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