Did the supporters of the slain 17-year-old schoolboy want him to become a saint?
This is what a photo circulating on Facebook seem to be claiming as it showed a Breaking News headline saying, “Kian, Gustong Gawing Santo Ng Mga Taga Suporta Nito.” The headline was attached to a photo showing what seemed to be Kian’s burial, but with people bearing placards calling for Kian to be declared a saint and describing him as the “New Christ” or the “Savior.”
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The photo was posted by the Facebook page “Balitanga News Philippines on August 26 with the caption. “Just In | Matapos ihalintulad sa kamatayan ni Hesus, sigaw ng mga taga suporta… “Gawing Santo Si Kian!”
While it is true that there was an RMN article about how Kian’s death was compared to Jesus Christ’s death by Caloocan Archbishop Pablo David during his sermon, it is not true that those who sympathized with Kian’s family wanted to turn the boy into a saint.
The photo uploaded by Balitanga News Philippines is an edited one. They made the distinction that the photo was edited for satirical purposes when they replied to one of their commenters on the now viral post.
When slammed for posting the edited photo, Balitanga News replied: “Nagbase lang kami sa headline ng RMN, at ginawan namin ng satire.”
True enough, when we checked the Facebook page’s About link, they described their page as a a “flagship parody/satire newscast” and a “major Filipino parody news program.”
We also found the original photos of Kian’s burial and the placards in the photos definitely did not contain the words asking to turn Kian into a saint.
These are some of the photos
See? The placards carried during Kian’s burial were calling for Justice for the boy’s death, not for his sainthood.
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Some of the things written on the placards were:
- “Justice for Kian! Justice for all!” (from BAYAN)
- “Inosente man o hindi, walang ‘tama’ doon sa ginawa nilang mali”
- “Ikalimang utos. Huwag kang papatay”
- “Puli sang aming kailangan. Hindi berdugo”
The writings on the placards and tarpaulin during Kian’s burial rites were edited to reflect what an archbishop preached about Kian’s death being comparable to that of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.
The photo, despite being shared by a Facebook page with a disclaimer of being a parody account, is being taken seriously by a lot of people.
The page was even bashed for posting such an edited photo when it has already declared itself as a ‘parody news program.’
However, the name of the page itself should have given the netizens a clue that the Facebook page’s contents should not be taken as the truth. A quick check of their About link on Facebook should help clarify things – it is a parody news program page and not a page to be used for reliable, accurate news.
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