News of billionaire Bill Gates working in Davao has been circulating on the web. According to the article, Bill Gates has started his investments in the country a few weeks after making headlines due to his interest in Philippine investments.
The billionaire has decided to focus on the construction of inexpensive housing units in the country. Gates’ press representative stated that this was the first project out of a three-phase construction plan meant to offer affordable housing to the Filipinos.
The press representative, Stephen Arthur said, “We know of the Filipino population and the crisis countries with huge population face when it comes to housing, So we chose to invest in the real estate venture by providing very cheap and nice housing units.”
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These housing units that would cost over 3 million are expected to provide employment for more than 5,000 people in the construction sector and about 20,000 laborers.
As we all know, Bill Gates is one of the world’s richest people with his real time net worth of $84.8 billion, according to Forbes. Receiving help from this man is definitely good news for the Philippines; however, there is no truth to this claim.
Meme Buster has busted previous claims of Bill Gates expressing interest and/or actually investing in the Philippines.
We have discovered that the news about Bill Gates investing $20 billion in the Philippines was originally from a satirical blog, The Guard1an. Read “Busted: News about Bill Gates investing $20B in PH came from a SATIRICAL blog.”
There was also news of Bill Gates arriving in the country with a $20 billion investment under the Duterte administration, which is fake and is a total copy from the satirical blog. The fake news site, philstar.i-telecast.com, only added the detail of Gates’ visiting the Philippines, which was way back 2015.
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Both of the stories were meant to show that instead of scaring away investors, the government’s drug war actually appeals to them because it gives them reason to believe that the country is safer.
But there are no truth in these claims and the quote from Bill Gates’ representative is fabricated.
We did Google Bill Gates and whatever relationship he may have with Davao and found out that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with several non-profit organizations from Europe and the US, started the Beyond Access Program that has chosen Davao City Public Library in 2012 for its strong ties to the community.
We also found an article from Davao Today, dated May 2013, about how Gates promised to fund one-third of the Rotary International “Future Vision” project to eradicate polio.
Unfortunately, claims about Gates starting the construction of housing units are unfounded.
Moreover, local-reports.com is a fake news site that is fond of faking stories as seen in our previous busts such as Alvarez starting a motion to remove the Aquinos’ photos from the P500 bill, Russia’s 2017 budget includes creating 2 million jobs in the country, Thailand Bank confirming gold was deposited during Aquino administration, and more.
Despite the news being fake, some Facebook users are still yet to learn the lesson as they continue to post without verifying their source.
One user even tried to make others guilty by stating that while some are defaming the president for their own interests, the country continues to receive more blessings. There are a lot of people celebrating over the “good news” in the comments section as well.
Even though others are trying to educate them, people who are like these are the reason why fake news continue to proliferate each day.
It is important to be wise and be able to discern fake from fact.
Sources: (gmanetwork.com, davaotoday.com)
Be Informed. Beat the Trolls, Share the Truth!
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