Once again, an article regarding the alleged developing friendship between President Rodrigo Duterte and US President-elect Donald Trump had been circulating in social media.
Facebook user Glorian Maame Nyarko shared to the Facebook fan page called “President Rody Duterte Facebook Army” a link to an article that talks about a special Christmas letter sent to the Philippine President by Trump himself. The article shared looks like it has come from Inquirer.net.
Marcos fan page “Kilusang Bagong Lipunan” also shared the same article that was published by du30info.com.
But when we checked both articles, they were actually sourced from the satirical blog, smithrise.com.
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It claims that Trump had allegedly written a special letter to Duterte instead of the general Christmas message that Trump had given to other people.
In the letter, Trump allegedly thanked Duterte for being one of the best leaders to congratulate him after the US Presidential elections and brought up ties between PH and US that would have to be reconsidered when Trump finally assumes presidency.
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Moreover, the article claimed that Trump addressed Duterte “my brother” and wished every Filipinos well for the holidays.
“Let me take this opportunity to wish you my brother and all the good people of the Philippines a Mery Christmas and Prosperous New Year ahead,” the letter allegedly stated.
Meme Buster dug deeper about this news and we found out that the claims of this article has no profound basis. The Malacañang Palace did not issue any official statement that President Duterte received such a letter from Trump and there wasn’t any news about this from any official news sites either.
Additionally, the site that published this article, smithrise.com, also has several articles that have been busted in our previous articles, as their satirical articles were shared on social media as the “truth.” Two of these busts include the satirical stories about Malaysia prime minister begging Duterte to fight drugs in Malaysia and the news about Trump and Putin pledging full support for Duterte.
Here’s proof that smithrise.com is indeed a satirical blog. Just read its About Us page.
The blog even said that they are “not afraid to skip a few steps like checking facts or corroborating sources” because it’s more fun and it’s easier to make things up.
This is also their disclaimer.
Be Informed. Beat the Trolls, Share the Truth!
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