A re-uploaded report carrying misleading claims concerning former Commission on Human (CHR) Rights chair Loretta “Etta” Rosales has been making the rounds on social media.
Website pinolitika.com, in a Sept. 24 story with the byline “DUTERTEISM,” claimed that “CHR member” Rosales had called out Quezon City mayor Herbert Bautista for disrespecting the human dignity of a suspected drug lord, after he was caught on camera slapping the suspect twice during the arrest. It bore the headline:
“Respetuhin ang mga Drug Lords, Tao parin sila at may Dignidad- Etta Rosales. Talagang inulan ng batikos sa kanyang pahayag. Panoorin (Respect drug lords, they’re still people with dignity- Etta Rosales under fire for her statement. Watch).”
The report, however, did not carry a video.
It also quoted President Rodrigo Duterte as saying that what Bautista did was “kulang pa (not enough),” and he should have also kicked the suspect.
The report is misleading.
The incident when Rosales called out Bautista for slapping the suspect happened in August 2014.
The website pinolitika.com was created only last July.
Rosales, in an Aug. 11, 2014 television interview, said Bautista’s act was, by law, a form of “maltreatment” and an “affront to the dignity” of the person detained for investigation, and therefore a “human rights violation.”
At the time, she was the chair and not merely a “member” of the Commission, as the report said. She retired from her CHR duties in May 2015.
Duterte, meanwhile, was still Davao City mayor, not the president as the report had claimed, when the slapping incident, to which he reacted, happened.
Pinolitika.com’s misleading report is a word-per-word copy of a May 23, 2017 article by politics.favradio.fm.
The Sept. 24 post was uploaded after Rosales, in a Sept. 20 protest, said in Filipino, “Mr. Duterte, like Marcos, would also meet his end.” Rosales also debunked the controversial claims made by former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile about martial law.
Pinolitika.com’s report could have reached at least 491,900 people. Its top generators include Facebook pages President Rody Duterte and Dugong Maharlika.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
