Broadcast journalist Korina Sanchez-Roxas was reported to have lost her “license” for supposedly discrediting the Duterte government. This is false.
The fabricated claim was made by Facebook (FB) page PH Batang Maynila in a 12-minute video uploaded on Aug. 21. It bore the headline: “JUST IN – MATAPOS PATUL0Y na PANIN!RA sa GOBYERNO, KORING HARAPANG TINULD0KAN, LISENSYA TANGGAL na (After continuously defaming the government, Korina faced the end of her career. License now revoked)!”
No revocation has happened because there are no licenses required for journalists in the Philippines in the first place.
The claim in the headline was based on comments of social media users that were read in the video. One called for the removal of Sanchez-Roxas’s license after she supposedly bad-mouthed President Rodrigo Duterte “in an official article” published in Pilipino Star Ngayon.
The piece was not a news article but an Aug. 13 opinion column where she wrote about “politicking” as the country approached the May 2022 elections.
The TV show host cited the Palace’s attacks against Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso for posing in sexy pictures when he was still an actor, and pointed out that Duterte has his own self-confessed vulgarities, such as sexually abusing a house maid.
The fake video also began with an unrelated Aug. 21 news report from a morning news broadcast about the arrival of Sinopharm vaccines from China.
PH Batang Maynila was created on Dec. 12, 2020. The same day it published the fabricated post, which has received over 320,000 views and 670 shares, it posted another piece of disinformation that was flagged by VERA Files Fact Check. (See: VERA FILES FACT CHECK: NO official announcement of Sara-Bongbong tandem)
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)