SATIRE: Gwen Garcia bans mass gatherings in Cebu

At a glance

• Claim: Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has prohibited mass gatherings in the whole province starting April 22 until June 2022.
• Rating: SATIRE
• The facts: This was originally posted by Cebu Dairy News, a satirical page on Facebook.
• Why we fact-checked this: Facebook users expressed belief in this claim and reposted it without the satire context.

Complete details

Cebu Dairy News, a satire Facebook page that mimics Cebu Daily News, said on Friday, April 21, that Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia signed an executive order “prohibiting all kinds of crowd-gathering events in the whole province” starting April 22 until June 2022.

It claimed that Garcia issued the new order after the grand rally of the tandem of Vice President Leni Robredo and Senator Kiko Pangilinan in Mandaue City on Thursday, April 21.

The post by Cebu Dairy News gained 110 comments, over 1,000 reactions, and 115 shares 16 hours after it was posted. It was reposted by at least one other account without the satire context.

This post is satirical.

The official Facebook page of Garcia posted a screenshot of the Cebu Dairy News post and labeled it as “FAKE NEWS.”

This post has to be fact-checked because it may lead the people to think that Garcia issued the order that prohibits any mass gatherings as a knee-jerk reaction to the huge crowd of the Robredo-Pangilinan grand rally.

Although Cebu Dairy News, in its disclaimer, said, “This page, by mimicking the style of the said news platform, was just made to either ridicule or make fun out of everything,” false information if unchecked may create confusion among the public and create unnecessary adverse reactions from people. This is demonstrated by several people expressing belief in the claim when they shared the post. – Antonio Manaytay/Rappler.com

Antonio Manaytay is a Mindanao-based journalist and an awardee of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.

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