HOAX: ‘Ninoy, Cory, and Noynoy’ book ‘pulled out’ due to low sales

Claim: A book about the Aquino family has been “pulled out” from bookstores due to low sales after the 2016 national elections.

The blog philnewscourier.blogspot.com posted the claim on October 24, 2017. Since then, it was shared 8 times in different Facebook pages and groups. All of these resulted in 3,020 interactions and attracted 1,778,612 followers.

The claim was flagged via Facebook’s Claim Check dashboard.

The blog politics.favradio.fm and newslogph.com (already taken down) also posted the claim.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The book was published 4 years before the 2016 elections.

“The book ‘Ninoy, Cory, and Noynoy’ was released in 2012, years before the 2016 elections. Majority of the copies were sold, but Summit has pulled out copies throughout the years, as part of standard circulation practice. Books in shelves for more than two years are pulled out regularly to make way for new releases, and not necessarily because of low sales,” said Summit Books Junior Associate Publisher Ishi Castro.

“We hope people will not politicize a children’s book,” Castro added.

The book tells the life of the 3 Aquinos. It is part of the Dream Big Books collection by author Yvette Fernandez and published by Summit Books.

Meanwhile, all 3 posts did not specify when the books were pulled out and also quoted a certain Cloyd Gallardo, a “branch manager of a major bookstore.” Gallardo’s supposed quote reads:

Sad to say, the Cory Magic is gone and many Filipinos are now saying they’re not satisfied with Noynoy’s performance. As book sellers, we need to remove all our copies from our shelves because they only consume space.

A Google search of “Cloyd Gallardo bookstore” leads to the philnewscourier.blogspot.com and politics.favradio.fm posts. No other substantial search results were found.

A Facebook search of the same name leads to only one user named Johncloyd Gallardo. A browse of his timeline shows no relationship with any publishers or bookstores.

Rappler has also contacted National Book Store and Fully Booked to inquire whether they have or had a staff member named Cloyd Gallardo. They have yet to respond.

The blog philnewscourier.com previously published last June a hoax, which Rappler has fact-checked, saying a priest was found with condoms in his wallet. – Miguel Imperial/Rappler.com

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