Blog phnewspride used fake photos in a May 30 post claiming a leader of urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) owns a P10.5 million home in a gated Santa Rosa, Laguna community.
STATEMENT
Bearing the headline, “Breaking News! Kadamay Leader’s Deepest Darkest Secret Revealed,” the post included a photo of a house and lot, supposedly owned by a certain “Belinda Gruta,” a “low-profile activist” of Kadamay.
The photo had text superimposed on it:
“This P10.5-M house in Nuvali is owned by a Kadamay leader.”
Source: The Philippine Pride, Breaking News! Kadamay Leader’s Deepest Darkest Secret Revealed, May 30, 2018.
The post claimed Gruta acquired her home out of the successful takeover of idle government housing in Pandi, Bulacan by collecting fees from people who wanted to own a housing unit, among other schemes.
FACT
The photo is fake.
A quick reverse image search traced its original source to one of the photos of a four-bedroom house and lot in Nuvali, Santa Rosa City, on real estate website Property24:
Kadamay media officer Michael Beltran, in a phone interview with VERA Files, said there is no Belinda Gruta in their organization:
“Sa almost 200,000 members ng Kadamay sa buong Pilipinas, wala pa akong nakikilalang Belinda Gruta or nakikitang Belinda Gruta sa mga listahan ng kasapian ng Kadamay (I don’t know anyone named Belinda Gruta from the almost 200,000 members of Kadamay in the entire Philippines, and I haven’t seen that name in the list of Kadamay members.)”
The fake report was posted days after Kadamay figured in the news, when its members protested May 28 before the National Housing Authority office in Balagtas, Bulacan to demand entry passes that would legitimize their stay in the government housing in Pandi town.
On June 13, Kadamay again attempted to occupy idle housing units in Rodriguez, Rizal, according to news reports.
Earlier in 2017, Kadamay members took over vacant houses in Pandi intended for low-income law enforcement officers, prompting President Rodrigo Duterte to ask soldiers and police to give up their housing units.
Phnewspride, which posted its first story in November 2017, has been flagged for containing fake news by Fakeblok, a browser plugin developed by the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines. It has no “About” and “Contact Us” pages, telltale signs of a fake news site.
The report, which was shared by 32 Facebook pages with a combined following of 2.48 million people, gained 7,236 interactions online. Its top sharers include Philippine News Courier, Marcos Loyalist and BongBong Marcos United.
Sources:
ABS-CBN News, Duterte lets Kadamay have Bulacan homes, April 4, 2017.
ABS-CBN News, Pabahay para sa mga pulis, sundalo inokupa ng Kadamay, June 13, 2018.
ABS-CBN News, Urban poor group presses gov’t on housing, May 29, 2018.
CNN Philippines, Duterte to soliders, policemen: Give up housing in Pandi to Kadamay, April 4, 2017.
GMA News Online, Kadamay members force way into Rizal housing project, June 13, 2018.
GMA News Online, Kadamay seeks ‘entry passes’ for their housing units in Bulacan, May 29, 2018.
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Accept house payment terms, NHA tells Kadamay, May 31, 2018.
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Duterte vows to give housing units to Kadamay, April 4, 2017.
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Kadamay members occupy Rizal housing project, June 13, 2018.
Property 24, 4 bedroom house and lot for sale in Nuvali.
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
