FALSE: ‘Photo’ of unfinished footbridge ‘during Aquino administration’

Claim: An unfinished footbridge in a photo published by Facebook page Raffy Tulfo Updates on December 21 is supposedly a project left by the previous Aquino administration. 

The caption for the post reads, “Wag nyo kasing hinuhusgahan ang mga proyekto ng nakaraang administrasyon. Lahat nang yan ay may dahilan kung bakit yan ganyan.” (Don’t judge projects of the past administration. All of these projects have reasons for being like this.). 

A reader emailed the claim to Rappler. Data from the social monitoring tool CrowdTangle showed that 7 other pages have shared the claim. The total interactions from these pages reached 593 shares, 115 reactions, and 35 comments, as of writing. 

Rating: FALSE

The facts: This is a previously debunked claim. The unfinished footbridge in the photo is located in Nonthaburi, a city near Bangkok, Thailand, not in the Philippines. 

A reverse image search showed that the exact photo used in the claim was originally posted by Facebook page ThaiVisa – The Nation Thailand News, the official page of Thailand-based online news site ThaiVisa. It was posted on November 16, 2018. 

Below is their original post: 

The claim surfaced as early as November 2018, shared by Facebook pages Mocha Uson Blog Supporters Facebook and Mocha Uson Worldwide Supporters.

Back then, said Facebook pages claimed that the bridge was a failed project during the Aquino administration. They compared it to the controversial P10-million footbridge along EDSA-Kamuning in Quezon City which was built by the current administration.

The Agence France Press Philippines and Interaksyon.com have previously debunked the claim. 

In November 2018, Rappler also fact-checked posts about a mini-footbridge constructed under Aquino administration that Duterte supporters claimed to be “useless.” The mini-footbridge was in fact for children’s road safety education, and not an actual footbridge for pedestrians. –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.