FALSE: ‘Sigbin’ caught in Surigao City

Claim: A “sigbin” was caught in Surigao City, as shown in a video that circulated on Facebook. A sigbin is a mythical creature in the Philippines believed to come out at night to suck the blood of victims.

Claim Check, Facebook’s monitoring tool for potentially dubious posts, flagged a post in Facebook group Raffy Tulfo In Action Supporters‎. The post was a link to a YouTube video of the supposed captured sigbin. It was shared to the group on February 8.

The linked YouTube video is 52 seconds long and was titled, “Sigbin nahuli sa (caught in) Surigao city.” It was posted on March 14, 2017. Its description reads: “Nakakatakot na panahon ngayon marami ng nagsilabasan na kong anu anu (It’s a scary time right now – a lot of unexplained things are coming out).”

As of writing, the video had 3,073,197 views on YouTube. The post on the Facebook group, meanwhile, had 232 shares, 162 reactions, and 82 comments.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The video was taken in Borneo, Malaysia, in 2015. Malaysian authorities said the animal in the video was “a sun bear suffering from an illness,” as reported by The Dodo, an American media brand under Group Nine Media.

English newspaper daily The Borneo Post also reported about the “strange animal” in 2015. The original video, which was posted on April 6, 2015, can be found in The Borneo Post’s official YouTube account. It was titled “Hairless sun bear captured after months-long search.”

According to The Borneo Post, the animal was first sighted in a plantation by Indonesian workers on January 30, 2015. The workers poked it and drove it away. After the initial reports of the sighting, the Sarawak Forestry Corporation launched a search and rescue operation to find the bear.

“The bear is in a good and safe place,” The Dodo then quoted an official from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation as saying in 2015. The official added that the Malayan sun bear is protected in Borneo, which was why they rescued it and gave it medical attention. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

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