An article claiming that the United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is defending Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte from the threats issued by the European Parliament over the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines has been circulating online. After earning thousands of shares, it is safe to say that it has gone viral.
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When a certain Panfilo Enero posted about the story on March 18, it gained over 8,700 shares.
The post made by the Duterte fan page “RODY Duterte-Bayaning Pilipino” also reached over 8,300 shares.
But the fact alone that the article came from a known fake news site thet1mes.com is enough reason to further verify the veracity of its claims.
The article claimed that the UN dismissed claims made by the European Parliament about how it should take action over the cases of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. It further claimed that the UN Secretary General Guterres spoke to its “correspondents” and told them that the UN conducted a survey in the Philippines, which showed that the killings are beneficial for the Filipinos and that the current government’s drug war is not violating human rights but protecting the people.
Here’s a quote that thet1mes.com attributed to Guterres:
“Human rights body has done an investigation on the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. I want to announce it here that the war against drugs in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte is for the good of the people of the Philippines and it is indeed promoting patriotism and good governance.”
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The article also noted how the European Parliament condemned extrajudicial killings in the country and called for the release of the Senator Leila De Lima and for her security to be beefed up in detention.
Thet1mes.com then published another quote from Guterres said:
“Philippines leaders should not allow EU interfere with Philippines judicial system. EU is known for grabbing lands they do not own, trading slavery, abusing human rights. And now, they will still insist their imperialistic and evil mindset to redefined them under the pretext of human rights, they do not even question or hear the other side of the story? UN will not go that way. Let Duterte do his work peacefully.”
In its concluding paragraph, thet1mes.com said that this is the first time Guterres defended Duterte since he assumed his position as the new UN Secretary General last January 2017.
But as with many of the articles from thet1mes.com, this claim about Guterres defending Duterte against the criticism of the European Parliament is not true. He did not utter any of the statements quoted in the fake news site’s article. Just Google them and the only websites that carried those statements are the fake news site itself and the other sites that picked up their content from thet1mes.com.
Meme Buster has busted hoaxes from thet1mes.com, such as stories about Queen Elizabeth congratulating the Philippine Senate for ousting De Lima, Hillary Clinton commenting on De Lima’s issues as an alleged drug trafficker, De Lima being banned from entering the US, and more.
Source: ( philstar.com )
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