Marcos Fact Checks

FALSE: Ferdinand Marcos, Jose Rizal established World Bank

Rappler.com

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FALSE: Ferdinand Marcos, Jose Rizal established World Bank
Multiple credible sources – journals, books, news reports – prove wrong the claim made in a video
At a glance:
  • Claim: Former President Ferdinand Marcos and national hero Jose Rizal established the “global debt facility,” also known as the World Bank.
  • Rating: FALSE
  • The facts: The video where the claim came from cited unreliable sources. There are no credible sources that say either Rizal or Marcos established the World Bank.
  • Why we fact-checked this: Several readers emailed the video containing this claim for verification. The video had over 881,000 views, 30,300 reactions, 24,600 shares, and 2,500 comments on Facebook as of writing.
Complete details:

The YouTube channel “PweDelie TV” uploaded on February 14 a video that falsely claimed late dictator Ferdinand Marcos established the World Bank together with national hero Jose Rizal in 1944.

The Facebook page “Gintong Pamana” uploaded the same video on February 16.

The title of both uploads was “ANG PAGTATAG NI PANGULONG FERDINAND MARCOS AT JOSE RIZAL NG GLOBAL DEPT (sic) FACILITY” (President Ferdinand Marcos and Jose Rizal’s establishment of the global debt facility).

The video claimed that Rizal’s death (in 1896) was staged by Jesuit priests, and that he assumed a new identity, using the name Jose Antonio Diaz. He then supposedly became a priest and went on to live for 113 years. He was supposedly 83 years old by the time he established the World Bank together with Marcos, who was then 27 years old.

This is false.

Multiple credible sources – journals, books, and news reports from legitimate news organizations – say that Rizal was shot in Bagumbayan, now known as Rizal Park, in Manila in 1896. In contrast, the false video only cited unverified posts from blogs as its sources for saying that Rizal survived his execution.

The photo referred to as Jose Antonio Diaz, or Rizal’s identity, was also false. A reverse image search showed that the man in the photo was Gregorio Aglipay, a former priest who was excommunicated in 1899 for his activities related to the revolution.

Filipino historian Xiao Chua identified Aglipay in a post in 2013. An identical photo of Aglipay can also be found on the website of Iglesia Filipina Independiente, the Philippine independent Christian church where Aglipay became the first Supreme Bishop.

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines said that Aglipay had “such admiration and respect for Rizal.” It was also said that the teaching of Iglesia Filipina Independiente was inspired by Rizal’s ideology and writings.

Meanwhile, the official website of the World Bank said the institution was conceived in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Monetary Conference in New Hampshire, United States. There was no mention of Marcos or Rizal at all on its “history” page.

In 1944, Marcos was only 27 years old – years before he was elected into power. He was the president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986.

The false video also cited a certain Karen Hudes from the World Bank as one of its sources of information. Although Hudes worked at the World Bank, she has long been discredited by the institution itself.

In 2014, the World Bank released a statement that said: “Karen Hudes has not been employed by the World Bank since 2007 and is in no capacity authorized to represent any arm of the World Bank Group. Any claims otherwise by Ms. Hudes or her proxies are false and should not be viewed as credible.”

The false video also repeated a previously debunked claim that the Marcos family owns a million tons of gold. At the end of the video, it also said that Marcos intended the Filipino people to inherit his gold. It said that this is the reason why Marcos’ heirs, Bongbong and Imee, are fighting to get back in the Malacañang Palace – to supposedly give the Filipinos the gold they deserve.

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Several readers emailed the false video for fact-checking. The video by “Gintong Pamana” had over 881,000 views, 30,300 reactions, 24,600 shares, and 2,500 comments on Facebook as of writing. Meanwhile, the video by “PweDelie TV” had 92,081 views and 879 comments on YouTube.

Claim Check, Facebook’s monitoring tool, also flagged the video for verification. – Pauline Macaraeg/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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