A July 22 video by YouTube channel Showbiz Fanaticz and carried by site Duterte Squad (dutertesquad.com) is claiming TV5 chairman Manny V. Pangilinan ordered to block comedian and host Vice Ganda from his network. This is false.
Its headline, “MANNY PANGILINAN PINA-BLOCK SI VICE GANDA SA BUONG TV-5 DAHIL SA PAGIGING ATTITUDE (Manny Pangilinan ordered to block Vice Ganda in the entire TV5 network because of his attitude)?!!” is unfounded. There are no news reports supporting this claim.
The article’s content also makes several allegations that are not backed up by its sources.
The TV5 chair has not “confirmed” that a “secret conversation” took place between his network and Vice Ganda’s camp, contrary to Showbiz Fanaticz and Duterte Squad’s claims. Neither Pangilinan nor his media company, also referred to as Kapatid network, released any statement on the matter.
Showbiz Fanaticz’s narrator also read four paragraphs from a story by Phil News (philnews.ph). However, Phil News did not carry the same claims about Pangilinan “blocking” the comedian.
Instead, it talked about a The Philippine Star article—actually a story by tabloid Pang-masa hosted on The Philippine Star website—about a “rumor” that TV5 supposedly turned down Vice Ganda’s talent fee of P3 million per show.
Showbiz Fanaticz’s narrator further embellished the video with this statement: “Ayon sa management ng Kapatid network at mismong may-ari na si Manny V. Pangilinan ay kahit anong gawin ni Vice Ganda ay ‘di na siya tatanggapin ng Kapatid network (According to the management of the Kapatid network and even its chairman Manny V. Pangilinan himself, no matter what Vice Ganda does, he will never be accepted by the Kapatid network).” This is also unsubstantiated.
The untrue story surfaced a few days after the Pang-masa article was published on July 19. However, Vice has refuted the false claims of his alleged negotiation with the network, slamming them as fake news in his post on Twitter, according to several entertainment reports.
Vice Ganda is a well-known talent of ABS-CBN, whose bid for a franchise renewal was denied by Congress on July 10. The shutdown of ABS-CBN’s broadcast operations has caused retrenchment of some of the network’s 11,000 employees.
The false story’s top three traffic generators are Facebook page Duterte News Report and groups Solid Duterte Supporters Worldwide and PROTECT THE PRESIDENT DUTERTE. It could have reached 344,400 people, according to social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle.
Duterte Squad was created on Aug. 9, 2018. Showbiz Fanaticz joined YouTube on Nov. 9, 2017.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
