President Rodrigo Duterte won the support of 16 million voters during the May 2016 elections. But a few articles popped up online claiming that an American couple named their triplets after Duterte.
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When the news broke in October 2016, it was shared by several Facebook fan pages, such as “Duterte Global Warriors” and “Juan Thing.”
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Facebook user Diao Nino Angelo also shared the same article to Facebook group “Rody ‘Digong’ Duterte Solid Group” and it gained 197 shares and 1,100 reactions.
A website called dailynews-tv.com carried the news. The article said that triplet boys were born in Nova Hospital in Woodbridge, Virginia on October 22 to parents Jeremy and Clara Bauer. The couple allegedly decided to name their newborns “Gerald, Simeon and Celestine Deturte.” Yes, the article spelled “Duterte” as “Deturte.” The couple’s decision was said to have been based on their admiration of Duterte’s good leadership qualities.
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The Bauers were even quoted saying “Me and my wife have been following close developments in Philippines ever since he became the President and we admire him so much, Duterte is fearless.”
However, we could not verify the story. A sensational piece such as this one would have made headlines, knowing how the foreign media have been made aware of President Duterte and his controversial remarks in the past.
We checked the website’s About Us page and found that aside from covering breaking news, it also covers “rumours.” Their About Us is also quite familiar since it is quite similar to the About Us page used by other blogs that cover fake news.
Upon checking the other articles published on the site, we found several other hoaxes in it, such as an article claiming that Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. confirmed Filipinos’ visa-free travel to the UK and that the US begged to not have American troops pulled out of the Philippines by allowing Filipinos visa-free travel to the US.
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The hoax about the American triplets named after Duterte was also published on fake news site cnn-alive.com, although we found out the website is no longer accessible.
Be Informed. Beat the Trolls, Share the Truth!
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