A fabricated quote card claiming opposition senator Risa Hontiveros said “kidnapping is okay” again circulated on social media earlier this week.
Facebook page Pres. Rody Duterte Worldwide Supporters on March 9 published a photo of Hontiveros beside what it claims to be her statement:
“Hindi masama ang kidnapping kung hindi sinaktan ang biktima (Kidnapping is not bad if the victim was not hurt).”
The photo carried the watermark of another Facebook page, BISTADO PILIPINAS, which has a history of posting misleading stories.
The fake graphic is merely a variation of another fabricated 2017 quote card with the exact same claim which Hontiveros already debunked in her official Facebook page.
Posted then by Facebook page Baste News, the image came out in August 2017, around the time when Hontiveros was being accused of kidnapping for taking custody of underage witnesses in the police operation that killed 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos.
In an Aug, 27, 2017 post, Hontiveros said:
“Binabaligtad nila si Kian. Biktima ng patayan, ginagawang drug courier. Ako, inakusahang kidnapper (They’re making Kian the bad guy. They’re turning him, the victim, into a drug courier. Me, they’re accusing of being a kidnapper).
Fight fakery! Fight for truth and justice! #FightFakeNews”
No official records nor news reports reflect this pronouncement and attribute it to Hontiveros.
BISTADO PILIPINAS’ fake quote card has already been taken down from its page. A post of a self-proclaimed “solid” Duterte supporter on Russian social networking site vk.com shows BISTADO PILIPINAS’ post circulated around November 2018.
Pres. Rody Duterte Worldwide Supporters’ March 9 fake post could have reached at least 1.3 million people and has garnered over 32,200 combined interactions on Facebook. Its top generators include Facebook group Tulfo Brothers Worldwide, and pages Pinoy Republic and Duterte-Marcos Tandem.
(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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