FALSE: Archbishop Villegas says it would be better if Duterte resigned

Rappler.com

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FALSE: Archbishop Villegas says it would be better if Duterte resigned
Archbishop Socrates Villegas did not say this quote. An earlier source of this quote was a site that published fake reports.

Claim: Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said the youth should be aware of the bad words of President Rodrigo Duterte, and that it would be better if Duterte resigned.

On May 18, Facebook page SOLID Duterte posted a graphic attributing the following quote to Villegas: “Mamulat ang mga kabataan sa masasamang salita ng Pangulo, much better magresign na lang siya.”

(May the youth’s eyes be opened to the bad words of the President, it would be much better if he resigned.)

The claim was flagged by Claim Check, Facebook’s tool for detecting posts with potentially false information. A Rappler reader also sent this post for verification.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: Villegas did not say this quote. Further, an earlier source of this quote was a site that propagated fake news.

On Wednesday, May 20, Villegas posted a screenshot of the post, labeling it as fake.

The claim was being circulated as early as October 2016, as shown by a video containing the quote posted by YouTube channel PRRD realworld. The video cites globalnews.favradio.fm as its source.

While the site is no longer active, an archived copy in Wayback Machine shows that the article from globalnews.favradio.fm only indicated the quote without citing a source. Vera Files, another fact-checking organization, also previously debunked a false claim that was sourced from the same website.

Moreover, no credible news organizations reported Villegas saying what was falsely attributed to him.

In the past, Rappler also debunked other false claims involving Villegas. These include a post claiming Villegas said that not voting for Otso Diretso betrays God, and another one claiming he said that the suspects for the rape and murder of Christine Silawan should not be punished. – Loreben Tuquero/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

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