Sen. Manny Pacquiao’s mother, Dionisia, is not dead. Neither was she rushed to a hospital recently, contrary to the claims of Youtube channel SHOWBIZ PH TV on July 2.
The hoax used a thumbnail with this false text: “Manny kinumpirma ang pamamaalam. Mommy Dionisia pumanaw na (Manny confirmed she has departed. Mommy Dionisia has passed away).”
The three-minute fabricated video was headlined “NAKAKAGULAT MOMMY D PUMANAW? MATAPOS HIMATAYIN, MANNY HINDI KINAYA (Shocking Mommy D dead? After fainting, Manny couldn’t handle it).”
The office of Sen. Pacquiao has issued no such statement, and no media has reported on the alleged death or recent hospitalization of the lawmaker’s mother.
Throughout the video, photos and a clip of Mommy Dionisia were displayed while the narrator read comments supposedly exchanged between Pacquiao and netizens who reacted to the matriarch’s “fainting.”
To make its falsehood more believable, SHOWBIZ PH TV spuriously used a clip from a report in June 2012 by GMA News TV which said Mommy Dionisia collapsed after her son lost in the boxing match against American boxer Timothy Bradley Jr. It also used a photo from a related GMA News Showbiz article.
The fake video started with the narrator saying, “Just in, Mommy Dionisia isinugod sa ospital dahil sa kanyang sakit na kung tawagin ay arthritis matapos niyang makain ang ipinagbabawal na pagkain ng kanyang doctor (Mommy Dionisia rushed to the hospital due to her ailment called arthritis after she ate food that is prohibited by her doctor).”
In 2009, Dionisia Pacquiao, herself a public figure, appeared in a food supplement commercial to fight osteoarthritis, also known as degenerative joint disease or “wear and tear” arthritis. But there have been no recent reports of the celebrity mother being rushed to a hospital from the medical condition.
The false video emerged as the senator and President Rodrigo Duterte engaged in a war of words, with the former alleging increased corruption under the current administration and the latter challenging him to substantiate his claim.
On July 3, Pacquiao named the corruption-hit agencies as the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, Department of Energy, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
SHOWBIZ PH TV’s video was viewed over 35,100 times, though its comments section was disabled. The channel was made on Feb. 3, 2019.
The fake video was re-uploaded by Facebook page Pinoy Raffy Live, whose copy has been viewed over a million times. The page was created on July 8, 2020.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
