FALSE: ABS-CBN did not report Aquino heckling incident

At a glance

• Claim: ABS-CBN did not report an incident in which then-president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III was heckled during a forum in 2014.
• Rating: FALSE 
• The facts: ABS-CBN had two reports on this incident.
• Why we fact-checked this: This claim was flagged by Facebook’s Claim Check tool, which monitors dubious content on the platform. As of writing, the post had gotten 7,700 reactions, 1,800 comments, and 4,200 shares.

Complete details

A video posted on the Facebook group “Rider’s freedom wall” showed an incident in which then-president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III was heckled in the middle of a forum in 2014. It was captioned, “Di kasi binalita sa ABS CBN to noon eh (This was not reported by ABS-CBN then).”

This claim is false.

As one can see in the backdrop of the video, the forum was conducted at Columbia University in the United States. Upon searching ABS-CBN News’ website on Google with the keywords “Aquino” and “Columbia University,” two reports on the incident show up.

The first is a video report entitled “WATCH: Protester heckles PNoy during US speech,” and the second is a report entitled “Militants dog, lecture PNoy in New York.” Both were posted on September 24, 2014.

The false video also included a snippet of then vice-presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. getting cut off during a debate as audience members shouted “Never again, never again, never again to Martial Law!” This was also reported by ABS-CBN News.

As of writing, the post with the false claim had gotten 7,700 reactions, 1,800 comments, and 4,200 shares.

In the past, Rappler had fact-checked other false posts claiming that the media did not report on events concerning Aquino or his administration, such as his alleged gold shipment to Thailand, as well as the collapse of a wooden footbridge in Zamboanga City that he had approved. – Loreben Tuquero/Rappler.com

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