HOAX: Enrile hits Sotto over plan for De Lima release

Claim: Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile hit current Senate President Senator Vicente Sotto III for the latter’s plan to “release” Senator Leila de Lima from detention.

In a July 8 post, the blog dutrending.info ran the headline “Enrile sinampal si Tito Sotto sa planong pagpalabas kay De Lima.”

The post was shared 20 times in different Facebook pages and groups. All of these accounted for a total of 1,888 interactions and 2,291,163 followers as of July 9.

The claim was also posted by YouTube channel “Pagbabago ng Pinas” on July 8.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The embedded video is a YouTube clip of the first segment of Sonshine Radio DZAR 1026’s talk show on July 6. It was hosted by Enrile, Jess Aranza, and Al Tatel. 

Enrile and the two other anchors did not mention Sotto and De Lima.

Enrile and Aranza talked about how some Philippine trade policies are contradictingly favoring foreign countries. They also criticized the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for supposedly removing the mandatory standards tests for certain glass products. “Dapat bigyan ng proteksyon ang mga local investors imbis na dinala nito ang pera sa ibang bansa para dun mag-invest,” said Aranza.

(The Philippine government should give protection to local investors so that the cash flow goes to the country instead of them investing in other countries.)

Meanwhile, the post’s claim was referring to Sotto’s June 28 visit to De Lima in her detention center at PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame. On July 2, Sotto asked Police chief Oscar Albayalde to allow De Lima to hold committee hearings in jail.

The video from the radio interview was uploaded by “Tatay Duterte News” on July 8. The said channel has a following of 39,000 users and also uploaded videos used by hoax posts, such as former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno supposedly demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Duterte after an order from of Vice President Leni Robredo.

Rappler has also checked posts on other sites that use alarming headlines with attached videos unrelated to the claims. Examples range from a video supposed showing a priest killing a single mother to North Korean leader supposedly calling President Rodrigo Duterte during his June 3 speech in South Korea.

The blog dutrending.info first post was on July 7. Since then, 6 posts have been published, all either pro-Duterte or anti-opposition. (READ: State-sponsored hate: The rise of the pro-Duterte bloggers)

All posts have no text content related to the claim, it only contains a company profile which mentions “Newz Live” and not the blog itself. A certain “V�O L�C” is the author of all 7 seven posts. – Miguel Imperial/Rappler.com

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