A report by website astignapinoy.net on Nov. 27 that claims Forbes said President Rodrigo Duterte has provided Filipinos “a sense of safety” is misleading.
The spurious post revives an article by the international business magazine last June 10 but twists its headline from “Duterte Has Brought Little Sense Of Safety To The Philippines” to “Mismong Forbes na ang nagsabi! | Duterte provided a feeling of safety in PH! (Forbes itself said it!).”
Astignapinoy.net claims in its story that Forbes compared the results of the 2018 Gallup Global Law and Order report – where the country scored 82 in terms of how its citizens felt about their safety and confidence in local police – with results from 2014, where the Philippine scored 76.
While the scores are factual, astignapinoy.net’s claim is not. Forbes made no such comparison in its report, and only said Filipinos felt “roughly as safe in 2017 as they felt back in 2016.”
The misleading post also reported the opposite of what the business magazine said about the effectiveness of Duterte’s campaign against drugs, saying Forbes concluded the campaign “is working.” The Forbes report, on the other hand, says it “has been in vain.”
Astignapinoy.net’s misleading report was published a day after senators in a hearing on Nov. 26 expressed concern over threats to national security of the entry of Mislatel into the country’s telco industry as the third major player.
Mislatel is a consortium of companies owned by Davao-based tycoon Dennis Uy and Chinese state-controlled company China Telecom, whose entry into the domestic communications industry sparked fears that China could gain access to state secrets.
The misleading report has reached over 218,000 people. Traffic to the story largely came from the pages Philippine News Update, One Million Likes For Duterte and PRESIDENT RODY DUTERTE SUPPORTERS INTERNATIONAL.
Astignapinoy.net was created on May 23.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
