Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay called American presidential candidate Hillary Clinton “The Woman” and President Rodrigo Duterte “The Man.” He did so as he captioned the article he shared involving the two political personalities.
And the article? It claimed that Clinton described Duterte “The World’s Man.” Hmm…
Sounds familiar?
That’s because we just busted this story yesterday. This story is completely made-up. Clinton certainly did not call Duterte “the world’s man” or described him as “the man women need at home.”
As what one of the Facebook users who commented on Yasay’s post pointed out, the last reported interaction between Clinton and Duterte was when the latter asked for a “certain level of respect” between the US and Philippine relations. This was also when Clinton agreed with US President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel his scheduled meeting at the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Laos in early September. Her remarks came after Duterte made strong comments against the US and Obama on the issue of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.
Another commenter on the same post said that this supposed statement from Clinton is “not yet confirmed” and even alluded that Duterte’s “disinformation group” could be behind the spread of the story.
In what seemed like a hit to Yasay, one commenter said it’s sad how people share articles without verifying their source.
And he was right. Yasay certainly did not check his sources. He was not the only man among Duterte’s official family who has made the mistake of sharing fake, misleading articles.
Duterte’s campaign spokesperson Peter Tiu Laviña has shared misleading posts before that we busted. He as busted for sharing a photo of a Brazilian rape and murder victim and passing it off as a crime in the Philippines. He was also busted for sharing a satirical article about African presidents, with their own issues, called Duterte a hero, with the excuse that “the world needs laughter.” Oh really? His edit history, though, made it seem like he really believed the article at first.
As Yasay and Laviña, men with high positions in the current administration, shared articles without verifying their sources, could we say they were simply victims to these fake articles? Or could they also be helping spread disinformation among their followers, who proved to be even less diligent in checking the credibility of the articles they find online?
Be Informed. Beat the Trolls, Share the Truth!
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