A Dec. 13 report by website dutertenews4network.com falsely claims that police dragged Sen. Leila de Lima out of a hospital after they found out she was “faking” an illness.
The article misleads with an old video of the senator which bore the headline:
“DELIMA KINALADKAD PALABAS NG HOSPITAL! DAHIL NAHULING NAGSAKIT SAKITAN LAMANG NG MGA PUILIS (De Lima dragged out of hospital! And caught by the police faking an illness)”
No such footage was shown in the 18-minute clip watermarked with the text “Duterte News Portal.”
It only spliced videos of De Lima at the Philippine Heart Center during her medical examination in March and her chief of staff reading the senator’s statement and taking questions from the media. It also used De Lima’s photo during her hospital visit as thumbnail.
De Lima, who has been detained on drug-related charges at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame for more than a year, was granted a medical furlough by a Muntinlupa court to undergo a CT scan examination after an impression of a liver mass had been detected in the senator.
The video was posted two days after a working group of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) formally asked the Philippine government to free De Lima, whose detention violates international human rights treaties, it said.
“The Working Group requests the Government of the Philippines to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Ms. De Lima without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms, including those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” the UNHRC working group noted in a 13-page opinion.
The misleading report is estimated to have reached more than 700,000 people. It was posted by 11 Facebook pages, with HARRY ROQUE, BONG GO AT RONALD “BATO” DELA ROSA – DDS GROUP PARA SA SENADO, President Duterte TV, and DUTERTE PARA SA BAYAN! as the biggest traffic generators.
(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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