FACT CHECK: No bodies of ’51 dead foreigners’ retrieved from Boracay

Claim: Some 51 corpses of foreigners were found and retrieved from Boracay Island.

Websites with dubious domain names (such as 2018socialclub.com) posted this claim in undated blog posts without a byline. They contained only an embedded video from YouTube.

This had been previously shared by some Facebook groups, some as early as May 2018. However, Facebook’s fact check dashboard shows that it resurfaced on Facebook on June 18.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: There has been no retrieval of foreigners’ corpses of that magnitude from Boracay. There are also no reports from credible news organizations to support this claim.

The embedded video is unrelated to the claim. It is from a UNTV Ito ang Balita news report on April 26, 2018. The report talked about 3 barangays in Boracay being placed under a state of calamity, following President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to close the world-famous tourist destination for rehabilitation.

Meanwhile, the thumbnail image for the post – which is featured when it’s shared on Facebook and other social media networks – was manipulated too. It included a photo of dead bodies supposedly from Boracay, but a Google Image Search shows that it is actually a photo from the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City in 2013. Because the photo misrepresents, it is deceptive.

The tactic used by these blog posts is identical to the blog post about the supposed “death” of actor John Lloyd Cruz, which Rappler fact-checked earlier and tagged as false.

Posts like these have an exaggerated headline, use a manipulated image appears when the post is shared on social media, embed an old or unrelated video, then ask viewers to share the video on Facebook and watch it in full.

These blog posts also don’t have a timestamp or byline, or even links to news reports from credible news outlets as source. – Michael Bueza/Rappler.com

If you suspect a Facebook page, group, account, a website, or an article is spreading false information, let Rappler know by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.