After testifying against President Rodrigo Duterte and accusing him of being involved with the Davao Death Squad (DDS), former police officer Arthur Lascañas and Edgar Matobato are allegedly now working as personal bodyguards of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. At least this is what some online articles are claiming.
The story made it to the posts of several Facebook pages and groups, such as “Duterte,” “President Rodrigo Duterte,” and “Marcos Loyalist.” It was published by blogs such as localhero.altervista.org and the obvious satire blog humorandsatirenews.altervista.org.
However, we also found the story published by Okd2.com under its “Humor & Satire” category, which meant the story “Trillanes Directly Hires Lascañas and Matobato as His Personal Bodyguards” was simply made-up.
It claimed that Trillanes announced on December 8 that he officially hired Lascañas and Matobato as his personal bodyguards. The senator allegedly made his announcement with both men.
Trillanes was also quoted saying:
“Ito ang mga taong maasahan natin sa lahat ng panahon. Ito ang mga taong willing magbuwis ng buhay. Sayang silang dalawa kung pabayaan natin and since pareho ang prinsipyo natin sa buhay, na ayaw natin ng patayan, hindi natin sila alisin sa tabi natin para maprotktahan sila at ang pamilya nila, at maprotectahan din nila tayo.”
As with other “satirical” stories from Okd2, the statement above can only be found on their website because Trillanes did not make any announcement on December 8 about hiring Lascañas and Matobato as his bodyguards.
Despite the satire tag on Okd2 and the word “satire” in one of the blogs that posted the story, these did not stop netizens from hurling insults at Trillanes, thinking that the story is true.
Trillanes said that a Catholic priest approached him to help Lascañas make his public confession. It was also the senator who provided protective custody for Matobato.
Sources: ( news.abs-cbn.com , newsinfo.inquirer.net )
