We all heard about how US President Donald Trump called President Rodrigo Duterte on April 29 to affirm the US-PH alliance and expressed his interest in cultivating a “warm, working relationship” with the Philippine president, said a Malacañang official.
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Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Trump told Duterte that he was looking forward to his November visit to the Philippines for the East Asia summit hosted by the country along with several other world leaders. He added that Trump also extended an invitation to Duterte to visit the White House.
But even before that April 29 phone call, it seemed like hoax sites were keen on establishing a tight friendship between the US and Philippine leaders as they came out with a story claiming that Trump sent 5,000 American soldiers to the Philippines to fight the bandit group Abu Sayyaf. The story was published in March.
It was also shared on Facebook by the page “Duterte Para sa Pagbabago.”
Trump allegedly decided to send US troops to the Philippines after he expressed his desire of quashing terrorism in the world. The article from philippinebalitadaily.com even translated Trump’s alleged speech before making the decision, which said:
“Ang terorismo ay walang lugar sa mundo na ito at kaya magpapadala ako ng Limang-libong sundalo sa Pilipinas upang sumali sa labanan kontra Abu Sayyaf.”
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We looked for similar content about Trump’s alleged decision to send American troops to fight the terrorists, but only found this article from fake news site fox-news24.com.
This is obviously the original article copied and translated by philippinebalitadaily.com into Filipino as it contains the same story, except it is in English.
Here, Trump was quoted saying: “Terrorism has no place in this world today and the Philippines should be assured that I’m ordering 5000 troops to join in the fight against Abu Sayyaf.”
However, we could not find any credible report about Trump sending 5,000 American soldiers to the Philippines to help in the fight against Abu Sayyaf. What we found instead was a June 16, 2016 Inquirer report about how the government sent 5,000 government troops or at least 10 battalions were deployed to Sulu to pursue the Abu Sayyaf Group in Sulu.
The story about Trump helping the Philippines fight the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf by sending 5,000 American soldiers is far from the truth. Trump has not done anything of the sort. It is simply a fake story, like many other stories about both leaders.
Fake news sites have created so many hoaxes about Trump and Duterte that Meme Buster has busted, including how Trump offered special treatment to Filipinos in the US due to Duterte, Trump saying US supports Duterte’s fight versus human rights groups, Trump calling himself, Duterte and Russian President Vladimir Putin the ‘best three,’ and Duterte being forced to attend Trump’s inauguration as special guest, among other stories. Visit memebuster.net, type “Duterte Trump,” and you’ll be surprised at how many fake stories were made up about the two.
Sources: ( www.usatoday.com , globalnation.inquirer.net )
Be Informed. Beat the Trolls, Share the Truth!
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