A 10-month old Facebook (FB) post carrying an altered photo of a supposed tsunami is again circulating on the internet, following several earthquakes in Mindanao in the past two weeks.
Posted Dec. 29, 2018 by a certain Even Demata, netizens continue to share the manipulated photo which was captioned with a warning:
“BREAKING NEWS – Mga lugar na posibleng tamaan ng tsunami kasunod ng 7.2 magnitude na lindol sa karagatan ng GovGen, Davao Oriental. Pinapayuhan ang mga taong nasa tabing dagat na agad lumikas (Places where tsunami may hit following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in the ocean of Gov Gen, Davao Oriental. People along the shore are advised to evacuate)…
Compostela Valley
Davao del Norte
Dava[sic] del Sur
Davao Oriental
Davao City
Sarangani
South Cotabato
Agusan del Norte
Agusan del Sur
Surigao del Norte
Surigao del SurIkalat agad para maging alerto ang lahat (Spread this quickly so everyone can be alerted)! ”
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) indeed issued tsunami advisories on Dec. 29, 2018, after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the town of Governor Generoso, Davao Oriental. But PHIVOLCS merely cited “minor sea level disturbances” between 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. that day and cancelled its advisory hours after.
The old post, which is still being commented on, has been shared over 47,000 times. It used a combined, manipulated image of two different photos to make it appear a tsunami was going to hit a beach.
These are photoshopped pictures of Ipanema beach in Brazil and sea waves both uploaded on the Web in 2008.
Tulunan, North Cotabato was rocked by two earthquakes — a magnitude 6.3 in Oct. 16, and a magnitude 6.6 on Oct. 29. But PHIVOLCS said there was no tsunami threat because the town of Tulunan, the epicenter, is inland.
PHIVOLCS also did not issue any tsunami warning after the earthquakes in Manay, Davao Oriental and Sarangani, Davao Occidental on Oct. 17.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
