A story by website filipnews.org published on Nov. 30 claiming that a certain “Ka Tina” has been recruiting students to join the rebel New People’s Army is fake news.
The fake story, with the headline “JUST IN:’KA TINA’ NG NPA, NAG-RERECRUIT NG MGA BAGONG MIYEMBRONG ESTUDYANTE! TAMA BA YAN?PANOORIN (Just in: ‘Ka Tina’ of the NPA, recruiting new student members! Is this right? Watch), leads to a broken link but continues to be shared by several Facebook users and pages.
A reverse image search of the photo used as the story’s thumbnail shows a person speaking to uniformed students and reveals filipnews.org‘s claim is fabricated.
The photo is a screengrab from a Facebook Live video by ABS-CBN DWIZ reporter Raoul Esperas last Nov. 27 of “Ka Tina.” He describes her as a former rebel, telling students why they should not join the NPA.
Filipnews.org‘s fake news was published three days after President Rodrigo Duterte said on Nov. 27 he is planning to create a hit squad to kill members and sympathizers of the NPA.
The fake story could have reached over 811,000 people, with traffic to the story from social media largely coming from the pages PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. DUTERTE – PROTECTOR OF NEW PHILIPPINES, President Rody Duterte Facebook Army and Suportang Duterte EVER.
Filnews.org was created on Jan. 2.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
