A recent story by blog The Most Popular Lists (most-popular-lists.blogspot.com) quoting fishermen as saying they were “fooled” by human rights lawyer Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno into signing a petition on the West Philippine Sea is not true.
The false report copy-pasted as its content a July 11 Inquirer.net report about 22 fishermen from Palawan and Zambales who claimed they were tricked into signing a document that would eventually be filed as a writ of kalikasan plea compelling the government to protect the West Philippine Sea.
The Most Popular Lists’ story changed the Inquirer.net’s headline from “Fishermen claim they were duped into signing ‘kalikasan’ petition” into an ill-formed and more accusatory version that reads, “Fishermen: Diokno were fooled us into signing ‘kalikasan’ petition.”
While 19 of the 22 fishermen involved actually claimed they were deceived into signing the petition, and Diokno was indeed one of the lawyers of the case, they did not accuse nor name Diokno as having wronged them in the Inquirer.net report.
There are also no reports from legitimate news organizations reflecting The Most Popular Lists’ claim.
The blog’s publishing date is likewise contentious. While it noted that the report “first appeared on the Inquirer,” and even hyperlinked the original story, The Most Popular Lists’ publishing date was July 10 — a day before Inquirer.net posted their story.
The false story surfaced when some of the fishermen made a move to withdraw the petition that they filed with the help of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. They said they were made to sign a blank document they were supposedly told was for “benefit claims from the government.”
The false story could have reached over 2.4 million people. Traffic to the story largely came from the pages Thinking Minds, Solid Sarah Z Duterte 2022, and Duterte Today.
The Most Popular Lists has been publishing stories stories since January.
