A Chinese ship, M/V Huang Hong, allegedly arrived at the Davao Port on October 17, a day the death of two terrorist leaders, with 310,000 metric tons of construction materials to help in the Marawi City rehabilitation.
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However, the story was categorized by okd2.com under “Humor & Satire,” which meant that not all of its claims are true. The materials were said to be worth P6.7 billion pesos, including “57,000 metric tons of cement, 162,000 tons of steel in different sizes, 37,000 tons of galvanize steel sheets, and other materials like nails, paints, and construction and carpentry hand tools. The ship was too big to be accommodated at the port so it was anchored 10 nautical miles off the Davao Port.
Okd2.com further embellished the story with the claims that President Rodrigo Duterte did not expect the shipment, that a local civil engineer estimated that the materials could make around 20,000 units of low-cost houses, and that a certain Zaldy Ramos, a Davao Customs official, said that they wanted to ensure that the construction materials will be put to good use unlike the Yolanda relief materials.
The story was then picked up by other blogs, such as newslogph.com and newsprimeph.blogspot.de. It has been shared over 4,000 times, based on the Facebook Link search results.
It was shared by individual Facebook users to Facebook groups and by Facebook pages, some of which are devoted to President Duterte and the Marcoses, such as “President Rody Duterte-Federal Movement International” and “Kilusang Bagong Lipunan.”
Despite OKd2 categorizing the story as satire, it still came across as a true story. Just look at the caption of the netizens and Facebook pages that shared the story, where they thanked China and President Duterte.
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China actually donated construction equipment to the Philippines, which arrived in the country on October 17, as announced by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). DPWH Secretary Mark Villar said that China donated 47 sets of heavy construction equipment, including eight sets of excavators, dump trucks, wheel loaders, a container van, cement mixers, track-type tractors, five sets each of compactors, and bulldozers, to help restore Marawi City. Seven more sets are expected to arrive as part of China’s Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Program.
In September, China donated P65 million to the Philippines for the wounded soldiers in Marawi. In June, they also donated P15 million for the besieged city’s rehabilitation. In the same month, China donated guns and ammunition, worth P370 million, to help the Philippine military fight terrorism.
Even the photo that was used as featured image in the OKd2 story was not the M/V Huang Hong that was named in the story. The huge ship was clearly marked as Cosco, which we found out to be a container ship from COSCO Development, the largest cargo ship to ever visit the ports on the US East Coast, as reported by Houston Chronicle.
China has donated hundreds of millions of aid to the Philippines in terms of funds, weapons and construction equipment, but they did not donate P6.7 billion worth of construction materials for Marawi City.
Sources: ( gmanetwork.com , inquirer.net , news.abs-cbn.com , rappler.com )
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