SUMMARY
This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
At a glance:
- Claim: President Rodrigo Duterte has fired Senator Panfilo Lacson.
- Rating: FALSE
- The facts: Duterte has not announced anything about firing Lacson. Firing senators is also not included in the powers of a Philippine president.
- Why we fact-checked this: Rappler spotted on CrowdTangle a YouTube video containing this claim, which has been viewed over 86,000 times as of writing.
Complete details:
YouTube channel “DDS NEWSINFO” falsely claimed in a video uploaded on Monday, March 22, that President Rodrigo Duterte has fired Senator Panfilo Lacson.
The video ran for 8 minutes and 47 seconds. It was titled “BREAKING NEWS TODAY MARCH 22, 2021 PRES DUTERTE MALACANANG SINIBAK SI LACSON (Breaking news today, March 22, 2021: President Duterte, Malacañang sack Lacson).”
This is false. Duterte has not said anything about firing Lacson, nor asking the senator to resign from his post, in his recent speeches. Firing senators is also not included in the powers of a Philippine president.
Section 16, Article 6 of the Philippine Constitution provides the manner in which members of the Senate may be disciplined, suspended, or expelled:
“Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its members, suspend or expel a member. A penalty of suspension, when imposed, shall not exceed 60 days,” the Constitution states.
As for the content of the video, it only included a clip of Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo daring Lacson to resign from his post. This was in response to Lacson’s earlier comment on the country’s vaccine rollout, saying that the government should get competent people as a solution to the delays in the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to the country.
“Gusto mong palitan natin? Sige, mukha namang magaling ka, eh. Hahamunin naman kita ngayon…. Sige nga, bakit na lang hindi ikaw? Bakit hindi ka mag-alok na ikaw ang magpatakbo nitong rollout national program? Mag-resign ka bilang senador, at ialok mo ang sarili mo kung ikaw ay magaling,” Panelo said.
(You want to replace [the officials]? Okay, you look like you’re competent. I’m daring you now…. Why don’t you do it instead? Why don’t you volunteer yourself to run this national rollout program? Resign as a senator and volunteer yourself if you’re competent.)
As of writing, the video had 86,829 views while the channel had over 560,000 subscribers on YouTube. Rappler spotted the video via social monitoring tool CrowdTangle.
This is not the first time Rappler has debunked a video uploaded by “DDS NEWSINFO.” In February, it falsely claimed that the government is distributing P10,000 in financial aid to every Filipino affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. That same month, it also said Duterte ordered that Smartmatic be replaced as the country’s vote-counting machine (VCM) provider. This is also false. – 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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