We have been keeping an eye on several fake news sites and the articles that they come up with. One of our most recent discoveries was an article on fake news site philstar.i-telecast.com claiming that Vice President Leni Robredo’s staff who leaked the information in #LeniLeaks committed suicide.
We searched for people who might have picked up this hoax and shared it on Facebook and we did find a few.
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In fact, the hoax was also picked up by hoax site theguard1an.com.
One Facebook user who shared the fake news even wondered if the story will ever make it to mainstream media.
According to the hoax, Robredo’s social media accounts manager committed suicide after leaking his boss’ top secret, which they said referred to a certain “Pete Silva” in the Yahoo group that was revealed by bloggers Thinking Pinoy and Sass Rogando Sasot. The article claimed that Silva also acted as the VP’s closed-in staff who is responsible for the leaked information and who initially “joked” about his suicide.
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However, this article is a hoax, especially given its sources, which we’ve busted numerous times before.
Moreover, there has been no news about any of the Vice President’s staff committing suicide. In fact, little has been known about Silva’s identity and his connection to Robredo’s office. What we found, though, is a screenshot of what blogger Sasot claimed to be Silva’s Facebook profile.
This is Rappler’s screenshot of an email in the Yahoo group that bore Silva’s name.
As for LeniLeaks, legal and policy expert Antonio La Viña said that the Yahoo group consisting of several personalities including FilAm philanthropist Loida Nicolas-Lewis only exercised their political right.
“Sedition is a call for an illegal act. There was no illegal act being called. To call for the President’s resignation is a free political exercise,” La Viña told Rappler.
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Lewis herself acknowledged the Yahoo group called Global Filipino Diaspora Council and the existence of a Duterte Resign Movement. She, however, said that her group called for Duterte’s resignation, not for his ouster.
Robredo also denied making calls to oust Duterte. “Ito pong oust Duterte, siguradong hindi ako kasali kung mayroon mang ganyang plano… Naniniwala po ako na hindi makakabuti sa bansa natin na gumawa na naman tayo ng oust-the-President movement.”
Malacañang is said to be looking into the emails in the Yahoo group to check the veracity of the reports about the supposed plot by Robredo’s supporters to oust President Duterte, said Presidential Communications Secretary.
Sources: (rappler.com, philstar.com)
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