After believing in fake news, netizens slammed Manila Times columnist Yen Makabenta for writing about the fake story about US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley asking for space for President Rodrigo Duterte to run the Philippines.
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Meme Buster debunked that false Haley story as it was found out to have come from the fake news site and Al Jazeera-wannabe aljazeeranews-tv.com, which attributed false statements to her, which said that everyone should respect Duterte and the Philippines’ independence, so he deserves space to manage his country.
But even before he inserted that piece of fake news into his September 23 column for Manila Times, Makabenta was also called out by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for sharing fake news.
On June 17, Makabenta’s column, “A festival of schadenfreude, courtesy of Trillanes, Duterte and Sereno,” also included a fake story about how Trillanes, as the last speaker for an event for the fishermen in Masinloc and Iba in Zambales, was abandoned by the crowd.
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However, we already debunked that story, considering how it came from a suspicious website called Pinoy Pride, thephpride.blogspot.com, that claimed to be a blog that is “not for gullible people.” No, Trillanes was not abandoned by the Zambales crowd.
Sadly, Makabenta used the fake story in his column, something that Trillanes’ office corrected in a separate article also published by the fake news site on July 29, “Trillanes decries ‘fake news’ in column item.”
The article from the senator’s office cited that Trillanes was not in Zambales on June 20 because he went abroad at that time for an official trip.
“The information could have been easily verified, but Mr. Makabenta failed and/or ignored his job as a responsible writer to do research first before publishing his piece.
“The information could have been easily verified, but Mr. Makabenta failed and/or ignored his job as a responsible writer to do research first before publishing his piece,” Trillanes’ chief of staff Rolando T. Averilla wrote.
Averilla also pointed out how the source of the article, Pinoy Pride blogspot, is a fake news site. Some stories from the website that we have busted include Senator Manny Pacquaio planning to donate 100% of his earnings from his Horn fight to Marawi, Mommy Dionisia Pacquiao selling her expensive bags and jewelry to help Marawi victims, the BBC staff laughing over Trillanes’ ‘childish letter,’ and more.
“This is not the first time that Mr. Makabenta wrote derogatory articles regarding Sen. Trillanes. However, his act of resorting to fake news just to malign Sen. Trillanes cannot be condoned or ignored,” Trillanes’ chief of staff wrote.
It added that Trillanes wanted an apology from Makabenta.
“It is in this regard that we seek a public apology from Mr. Makabenta in order to correct and/or rectify this obviously erroneous and seemingly malicious article that he wrote against Sen. Trilanes,” Trillanes’ office said.
Sources: ( manilatimes.net , manilatimes.net )
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