FALSE: John Regala dies in August 2020

Claim:

Actor John Regala, whose real name is John Paul Guido Boucher Scherrer, died in August 2020 at the age of 55.

Websites manila.gmplustv.com, jeepnytv.xyz, gman3wsupdate.xyz, and gl0beupdatingn3ws.xyz posted this claim as early as August 22. The web pages contained a video clip of what looked like a news report from 24 Oras, GMA Network’s evening news program. When clicked, the video shows newscaster Mel Tiangco for a few seconds then stops to ask the reader to “uncover” the rest of the clip.

The video embedded in the websites was uploaded by YouTube channel Aksyon Balita PH on July 29, which got 75,146 views as of writing. Facebook’s monitoring tool Claim Check flagged at least 24 posts that contained this claim.

Rating: FALSE

The facts:

Regala is still alive. The video of the newscast embedded in the websites was also edited.

On Tuesday, August 25, Regala went on a radio interview with Radyo Singko 92.5 News FM’s Wanted Sa Radyo to say that he did not receive donations raised for him by his fellow celebrities, Chuckie Dreyfus and Nadia Montenegro, following his hospitalization in early August. Regala suffered from severe gout and cirrhosis. He was discharged after 8 days on August 12 and was said to be on his way to recovery.

The Inquirer reported on August 26 that the reason why Regala’s colleagues ended their support was that they could no longer tolerate the actor’s behavior.

The video uploaded by Aksyon Balita PH also did not contain any supporting evidence about the actor’s supposed death. The video was only 3 seconds long, with Tiangco making no mention of Regala’s name.

Rappler previously debunked a claim that also came from Akson Balita PH in June. Similarly, the YouTube channel posted an altered video of a newscast that made it appear like it was about an OFW beheaded in Saudi Arabia after testing positive for the coronavirus, when in fact the clip originally was of a 2015 report about the beheading of an OFW convicted for murder. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

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