A six-year-old news report about a bullet hitting the office window of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in 2015 was used in a Tiktok video to suggest there is an assassination attempt against the presidential aspirant.
The two-minute report by GMA News’ 24 Oras dated Aug. 3, 2015 was used in its entirety by TikTok user @aaaccee11 to mislead netizens. It carried the text: “BBM assassination 2022?” The video was uploaded on Tiktok on Jan. 31.
FB page Anti bias, created on Jan. 23, picked it up and reuploaded the TikTok clip the day after, and was captioned “Dilikado [sic] manok natin” (Our preferred candidate faces danger.)
Both clips appeared shortly after Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Jan. 30 that the National Bureau of Investigation is looking into the case of a TikTok user who posted an assassination threat against Marcos Jr. on the video sharing app.
Some netizens pointed out that the video is “misleading” because it is an “old news report.” Others, meanwhile, prayed for the safety of Marcos and warned him to be more cautious. Someone even wrote a Bible quote.
According to the 24 Oras report, at around 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 2, 2015, a guard spotted a bullet hole on the glass window of Marcos’ satellite office at Sunset View Towers in Pasay City. The bullet did not go through the glass panel due to a metal plating installed for security purposes.
Marcos then said he didn’t believe that the incident was related to his work in the Senate, where he was chairman of the committee on local government that drafted the Bangsamoro Basic Law.
ABS-CBN News, The Philippine Star, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Cebu-based daily broadsheet The Freeman also reported on the incident back in 2015.
The misleading video garnered 1.3 million views on TikTok as of Feb.4 , but has been taken down as of Feb. 7. Its version posted on FB garnered 62,000 reactions, 12,000 comments, 21,000 shares, and 2.9 million views.
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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.)
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