A fabricated report circulating on Facebook is claiming that President Rodrigo Duterte criticized House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. for disrespecting Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno.
Facebook page DDS Bicol posted the fake report, presenting it as a legitimate news story on Dec. 18. It bore the headline “Duterte slams Andaya for disrespecting Budget Secretary Diokno” and featured photos of Andaya and an angry Duterte with a speech bubble that read, “Sumosobra ka na!”
An excerpt of the Facebook post, which included a link to a Rappler story, read:
“MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte criticizes the dishonorable attitude and unreasonable manner showed by House Majority Speaker Rolando Andaya Jr. towards Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin Diokno during the latter’s appearance in the House of Representatives last Wednesday (December 12).”
The report is fake.
It distorted the Rappler story, which only quoted Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo as saying Duterte will not allow any Cabinet, military and police officials “who are invited to a committee hearing to be treated with disrespect.”
Earlier, some Cabinet officials threw their support behind Diokno after the House of Representatives adopted a resolution urging Duterte to fire the budget chief over alleged insertions in the national budget, which Diokno maintained weren’t illegal.
The DDS Bicol post included links to old videos of Andaya to bolster its claim that his behavior is “unbecoming of a congressman.” These include a spliced footage of his scuffle with Camarines Sur 2nd district representative L-Ray Villafuerte over a land dispute in April and a cut video of his address that was edited to make him look like the devil.
The fake report has since received over 36,000 reactions, 1,400 comments and 1,863 shares. Created in April, DDS Bicol changed its name twice from DDS Trendz News and DDS News Update.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
