FALSE: Tarlac cop Nuezca’s house burned down by neighbors

At a glance:

• Claim: Neighbors in Paniqui, Tarlac, burned down the house of dismissed Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Paniqui said they received no reports about a fire at Nuezca’s house.
• Why we fact-checked this: At least 8 Youtube videos containing this claim made the rounds on social media. The videos have over 1.5 million views combined.

Complete details:

YouTube Channel “Kuya Tams TV” claimed that the house of dismissed Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca was burned down by neighbors in Paniqui, Tarlac, in retaliation for the slay of two unarmed civilians Sonya Gregorio and her son Frank on December 20, 2020. He is facing two counts of murder and is currently detained at the Paniqui Municipal Jail.

The video, uploaded on December 30, falsely said that an unidentified person attempted to enter Nuezca’s house before the house went ablaze.

It said: “Ang huling ulat nito kahapon ay nailipat na nga eto sa BJMP Paniqui, Tarlac. Kasabay ng ulat na ito ang balita na may nagtangkang pumasok sa bahay ng mga Nuezca at bigla na lang daw itong lumiyab…. Kasalakuyang pa nga raw itong hinahanap ng mga barangay ang mga salarin.”

(The latest report yesterday [December 29] was that Nuezca was transferred to BJMP Paniqui, Tarlac. While this was happening, someone attempted to enter Nuezca’s house before it suddenly went ablaze…. Barangay officials are in search of the suspects.)

This is false.

The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Paniqui in Tarlac denied these claims in a text message to Rappler. The office said they received no reports about a fire at Nuezca’s house in December 2020.

The photo of the house being used in the video was also not the house of Nuezca. Using reverse image search, Rappler found that one of the photos used in the videos was from a 2019 fire at a residential area along Quiricada Street in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

As of January 12, there had been no news reports that say Nuezca’s house was burned down. 

As of writing, the video had 1.1 million views. Social monitoring tool CrowdTangle showed that the video was posted by at least two Facebook pages. As of writing, posts containing the claim have 524 shares combined. 

At least 7 other YouTube videos made the same claim. These videos have over 420,00 views collectively.

Rappler previously debunked claims that Nuezca was freed due to lack of evidence and that President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the death penalty for Nuezca. – Jerome Sagcal/Rappler.com

This article was written by a volunteer of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program, a 5-week exclusive and hands-on training on detecting, investigating, and verifying online misinformation and disinformation.

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.