Making the rounds on Facebook (FB) this week is another video falsely linked to the killing of overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Jullebee Ranara. The short clip features a young Saudi Arabian returning from war.
On May 28, an FB page published the reel with the following superimposed text:
“The last meeting together, her son who was sentenced to death. Hindi kaya ito yung batang lalaki 17 yrs old na pumatay kay Jullebee Ranara… Ngayon hahatulan na siya ng kamatayan (Isn’t this the 17-year-old boy that who killed Jullebee Ranara? Now he will be sentenced to death).”
Only background music can be heard throughout the 48-second video, as it showed a woman, veiled in a black burka, running to hug her child as he was escorted by two men in white tunics.
The boy in the video is not the suspect behind the murder of Ranara. Neither has there been a final verdict on the OFW’s rape-slay in January. Her remains were left in the middle of the desert after she was allegedly raped.
The video was first published by Middle Eastern media organization Al Arabiya News in April 2014 showing a 17-year-old Saudi Arabian boy named Misfer, who criticized religious preachers for deceiving him into joining the war in Syria.
At around the video’s 2:54 mark, the boy’s mother can be seen rushing to hug him after landing at an airport in Saudi Arabia.
The erroneous FB reel emerged a day after President Ferdinand Marcos rejected calls for a total employment ban in Kuwait following Ranara’s death, stating he did not want to “burn any bridges.” Kuwait has temporarily halted issuing any working visa to Filipinos.
FB page Lens and two kiddos channel (created on Sept. 10, 2021) published the reel, racking up over 15,900 reactions, 4,100 comments, 4,500 shares and 1.7 million views.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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