HOAX: Bam Aquino’s ‘quote’ on Dengvaxia

Claim: Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV said Filipinos should be “proud” of Sanofi Pasteur for “conducting their experiments regarding adverse effect of Dengvaxia.”

The ‘quote’ was placed on a graphic with photo of Aquino and a logo of News5.

Facebook pages “Duterte WatchTower & Phils. Travel” and “Mga Balitang Pinas” posted the claim 5 hours apart on October 4. The latter had higher engagement with at least 1,500 reactions, 860 comments, 3,876 shares as of October 5.

The full “quote” reads:

At least we could be proud that we contributed on Sanofi Pasteur in conducting their experiment regarding adverse effects of Dengvaxia.. We have save billions of people around the globe.

Rating: HOAX

The facts: There is no such quote from Senator Aquino.

The original graphic was from News5’s January 24 Facebook post regarding Aquino’s statement on the state-sanctioned research at Benham Rise by Chinese scientists.

News 5 posted on October 4 on Twitter that the “quote” and the graphic were untrue.

Kumakalat ngayon sa iba’t ibang social media site ang mga quote card na katulad nito. Ang quote na sinabi umano ni Sen. Bam Aquino ay hindi totoo at hindi rin galing sa News5 ang card na ito. pic.twitter.com/3ZggI3wGxY

— News5 AKSYON (@News5AKSYON) October 4, 2018

This is not the first time the name and logo of News 5 have been used in a dubious post.

On September 4, the blog news5.balitangbago.info posted a claim that Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has already been arrested over court cases related to the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege. At that time, the senator was still inside Senate premises. He would eventually be arrested on September 25. — Miguel Imperial/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.