FALSE: Photos of Surigao bridge during Aquino and Duterte admins

Claim:

A photo comparing then-and-now images of the San Benedicto Bridge in Surigao shows how it was greatly improved under the Rodrigo Duterte administration.

Facebook page Pilipinas Kong Mahal posted a photo containing this claim on September 15. The post showed the supposedly current state of the bridge and compared it to its dilapidated condition during the Benigno Aquino III administration.

Claim Check, Facebook’s monitoring tool, flagged Pilipinas Kong Mahal’s post for verification after it was reported at least 50 times for containing false information. As of writing, the post had 391 shares, 995 reactions, and 215 comments.

Rating: FALSE

The facts:

Reverse image searches of both bridges show that none of the structures in the post are located in the Philippines.

The image of the wooden bridge tagged as the San Benedicto bridge during the Aquino administration is a photo of a bridge located in a 4.5-star hotel in Batam, Indonesia. The photo was taken in November 2019 when it collapsed, leaving 26 Singaporeans injured. The photo was used in official news reports of Singaporean broadsheet The Straits Times and Malay daily newspaper Berita Harian.

Meanwhile, the “new” bridge in the photo said to be Duterte’s project, is an image of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Kobe, Japan. Stock photos of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge can be found here and here.

There is also no city or municipality in either Surigao del Norte or Surigao del Sur named San Benedicto, but there is a municipality called San Benito in Surigao del Norte. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

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