Some Facebook fan pages devoted to President Rodrigo Duterte and the Marcoses shared an article about how US President Barack Obama supposedly said that the “Philippines is the most corrupt country under Aquino administration.”
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The Marcos fan page’s post even earned over 3,600 shares, as of writing, while the Duterte fan pages featured above earned over 3,000 combined shares. There were other pages sharing the article, too.
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As we scanned the comments, many truly believed in the statement that was attributed to Obama. They even expressed their agreement with the said remark from the US president.
The story was picked up by blogs like socialnewsph.com and trendingnewsportal-ph.blogspot.com. Social News PH is included in our list of fake news and satire sites for posting several fake articles on their blogs.
We clicked on the articles and found no written context in them, except for a YouTube clip that is 21 minutes, 24 seconds long. It was a video of CNN Fareed Zakaria interviewing Obama, particularly on his administration’s pivot to Asia, in September 2016.
According to Obama, the US rebalancing policy was not meant to ignore other countries in favor of Asia, but to recognize how Asia has now transformed into the most populous region, the world’s largest market. He also explained his Asia trade pact and its benefits, his view of China, what he thinks of then-US presidential candidate Donald Trump, unrest in Turkey, and book recommendations.
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Obama mentioned the Philippines at around 9:13 as one of the Asian countries that have maritime issues with China. But there was definitely no mention of Aquino or corruption in the Philippines or Obama pointing fingers to the Aquino administration, during which the articles claimed the country was “most corrupt.”
Once again, those who believed and shared the articles about Obama supposedly commenting on the corruption in the Philippines were taken in for a ride by socialnewsph and trendingnewsportal. They have once again created a lie that many Filipino netizens so easily fell for.
Be Informed. Beat the Trolls, Share the Truth!
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