Elected party-list group Tingog Sinirangan shared on Facebook (FB) an old video of President Rodrigo Duterte that was misrepresented as “Breaking News” on April 23.
Uploaded by an FB page that posts “viral videos” for entertainment, the clip’s title and caption falsely claimed Duterte “thanked” tycoon Manny Pangilinan and other billionaires for supposedly helping out during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis.
STATEMENT
On the morning of April 23, FB page Trending Lahat published a video of Duterte addressing the nation, played on loop as a “livestream” for nearly eight hours. It bore the headline and caption:
“BREAKING NEWS APRIL 23, 2020. LATEST SPEECH ni PANGULONG DUTERTE MAY MAHALAGANG MENSAHE PANOORIN. PANOORIN PANGILINAN AT ILANG BILYONARYO PINASALAMATAN NI PANGULONG DU30 SA PAGTULONG SA KRISIS.”
(Breaking News April 23, 2020. Latest speech of President Duterte has an important message, watch. Watch: President Duterte thanks Pangilinan and other billionaires for their help in the crisis.)
Source: Trending Lahat, “Breaking News…,” April 23, 2020
Three hours later, it was shared by the official FB page of Tingog Sinirangan, which currently occupies one seat in the 18th Congress of the House of Representatives.
Trending Lahat’s video has been viewed over 840,000 times and has garnered more than 25,000 reactions and about 4,000 shares from FB users as of posting time.
FACT
The video in Trending Lahat’s live stream is actually Duterte’s late night “Talk to the Nation” address on COVID-19 aired on April 6.
In the speech, the president did not mention – much less thank – Pangilinan or any other “billionaire” or tycoon. At most, he called for those “who have more in life” to “extend financial assistance” to people in need.
Duterte mentioned Pangilinan in at least two speeches since he started regularly addressing the nation about the government’s COVID-19 response on March 12.
The first instance was on March 16, when he asked Pangilinan and other prominent business owners in the country to “understand” their employees who could not report to work because of the pandemic.
Two weeks later on March 30, he enumerated and thanked foreign governments, businesses, organizations, and private individuals — including Pangilinan — who donated and gave support to the government amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Trending Lahat’s video came a day after Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade announced that the government will be renting two ships from transportation company 2Go for use as quarantine facilities. The rent fee will amount to P35 million, according to Tugade.
2Go Chairman and tycoon Dennis Uy later on said that the company will waive the “rent.”
The false livestream also came the day Duterte was expected to decide on the possible lifting, extension, or modification of the enhanced community quarantine currently imposed in the whole Luzon.
Comments on the video show that while some netizens pointed out that the video was outdated, there were others who believed Duterte’s speech was ongoing. Some even asked for the television channel where they could watch the president’s address.
FB Page Trending Lahat was created in February 2019.