A three-year-old story on the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap’s (Kadamay) takeover of government housing units in Bulacan has been revived on social media.
A blog, Facebook page and YouTube account released write-ups from April 9 -12 with similar headlines. The three accounts did not mention in their posts that the Kadamay incident happened in 2017.
Lostfilesph.blogspot.com published “KADAMAY NAGREKLAMO SA PABAHAY NI PRES. DUTERTE , MALIIT DAW AT PANG ASO LANG (Kadamay complains about Pres. Duterte’s housing project, says units too small and only fit for dogs)!”
FB page YouScoop PH uploaded screenshots of the blog’s article and captioned it with “Bukod sa hiling na gawing 10,000 kada buwan ang gawing sustento sa kanila ng gobyerno, mga grupo ng kadamay nagrereklamo din sa pabahay ni Pres. Duterte, maliit daw at pang aso lang (Aside from their request to the government to give them 10,000 cash aid every month, the groups belonging to Kadamay are also criticizing Pres. Duterte’s housing project, saying units too small and fit only for dogs).”
YouTube channel Goku Tv uploaded a video on April 10 titled “KADAMAY NAG REKLAMO SA PABAHAY NI PANGULONG DUTERTE, MALIIT DAW AT PANG ASO LANG (Kadamay complains about housing project of President Duterte, says units too small and fit only for dogs).”
Included was an edited clip of Kadamay Chairperson Gloria ‘Ka Bea’ Arellano being interviewed by News5 and screenshots of the same lostfilesph.blogspot.com story.
The blog copied word-for-word its misleading post from an April 2017 GMA News Online write-up on Kadamay occupying units of the National Housing Authority in Pandi, Bulacan.
It swiped photos from another April 2017 GMA News Online article and an April 2017 Radyo Inquirer.net report.
These deceptive posts spread a week after Kadamay, an urban poor group, was blamed for instigating residents of Sitio San Roque to protest the lack of government food aid on April 1 amid the crisis caused by COVID-19. Several people were arrested by the military for violating the enhanced community quarantine.
Lostfilesph.blogspot.com shares the Google Adsense ID (ca-pub-2035820408800758), a tool given to publishers to earn from their sites through advertisements, with eight other websites. This suggests that only one organization or individual is behind these.
YouScoop PH’s outdated post has been shared for over 21,000 times, garnering 15,000 reactions and 22,000 comments.
At the same time, lostfilesph.blogspot.com’s old and plagiarized story has reached over 2 million followers on FB, and has been reposted 52 times, earning 21,501 total interactions. Its top traffic generators are FB public groups Mayor Isko & President Duterte Supporters and Solid Duterte Supporters Worldwide, and FB page Status Pilipinas.
Lostfilesph.blogspot.com has been posting since August 2018. YouScoop PH and Goku TV were created only last February and March, respectively.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
