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VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Website carries MISLEADING photo in Halili assassination story

A July 5 story by website Sulong Pilipinas currently making rounds on social media that claims to show CCTV footage of the killer of Tanauan City, Batangas mayor Antonio Halili escaping is misleading.

By VERA FILES

Jul 17, 2018

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A July 5 story by website Sulong Pilipinas (pilipinasdailynews.net) that claims to show CCTV footage of the killer of Tanauan City, Batangas mayor Antonio Halili escaping is misleading.

Bearing the headline “PAPATAKAS NA SUSPEK NI HALILI NAKUNAN NG CCTV (Halili suspect caught fleeing on CCTV),” the report carried a video whose thumbnail showed an image of Halili, a security camera screen grab of a car, and a photo of a partially blacked out Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV photoshopped onto the driver’s seat.

The video, uploaded by Youtube channel TOKHANG TV, is a pirated 10-minute clip of a 27-minute episode that day of the CNN Philippines show News Night, which had featured the ongoing investigation on Halili’s July 2 assassination. CNN Philippines’ story did not mention Trillanes.

Sulong Pilipinas also misleads by making it appear that the suspects have been identified, when the police had only taken note of two speeding cars fleeing from the direction of City Hall minutes after Halili was shot there.

The story, which could have reached more than 987,000 people, was published a day after Trillanes, reacting to Halili’s assasination, said, “Duterte’s culture of violence is upon us.”

The story’s biggest traffic generators from social media are Solid Duterte-Marcos Supporters, Big Bossing and Alan Peter Cayetano Supporters International. Sulong Pilipinas was created on June 23; TOKHANG TV in November 2016.

(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to
fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this
methodology.)

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