MANILA, Philippines – As expected, being senator has not stopped Bong Go from being a constant presence at President Rodrigo Duterte’s events.

Out of 15 public events of the President from July 23 to August 6, the neophyte senator and former special assistant to the President was present in 11 or more than half.

He's notably not by Duterte’s side on days when there are Senate sessions, like on Tuesday, August 6. That day, Duterte had engagements with local government executives and the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc (FFCCCII) yet Go was not in attendance.

Lest the public think he’s not doing the job he was elected to do, Go has already filed at least 14 bills.

In recent presidencies, there’s been no senator like Go so often seen with a sitting president. Sure, chief executives always have their favorite allies in Congress, as with the case of former president Gloria Mapacagal Arroyo, who included her favorite congressmen in her foreign trips.

But it's rare for only one lawmaker to be held in such special regard by the President. Go attends even presidential events where no other lawmaker is present.

They’re often activities where you would expect an aide to be present, but not a senator.

When Duterte made an aerial inspection of Batanes after the July 27 earthquake, Go was beside him in the chopper. When Duterte and Public Works Secretary Mark Villar inaugurated the Candon City bypass road in Ilocos Sur, Go was with them in the open-air car ride. When Duterte met with officials of Vietnam’s Communist Party, Go was the only Filipino lawmaker there.

As newly-appointed Supreme Court Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda and Acting Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado took their oaths before Duterte, Go joined the fist-bump group photo like in his SAP days. 

Even when the be-sashed winners of Miss Earth Philippines paid a courtesy call on Duterte, Go found a reason to be there, smiling as his former boss made small talk with the ladies.

Here are the presidential events Go has attended from July 23 to August 6:

• July 23 - Meeting with local chief executives in Manila Hotel
• July 25 - Inauguration of Candon City bypass road, Ilocos Sur
• July 28 - Batanes earthquake inspection
• July 29 - Courtesy call of Ruling Communist Party of Vietnam Chairman Hoang Binh Quan and other officials
• July 30 - TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) 911 launch
• July 31 - NICA-NSC (National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and National Security Council) anniversary
• August 1 - Bureau of Fire Protection anniversary
• August 2 - Wake of the late Ernesto Evangelista in Davao City
• August 2 - Turnover of certificates of land ownership award in Davao City 
• August 5 - Oathtaking of Supreme Court justice Rodil Zalameda and Acting Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado
• August 5 - Meeting with Miss Earth Philippines 2019 winners

Go was absent from only 4 public activities – the presentation of credentials of ambassadors on July 24, the oathtaking of new appointees on August 5, the farewell call of Danish Ambassador Jan Top Christensen on August 6, and the oathtaking of the League of Provinces of the Philippines and FFCCCII officers on August 6.

Evidently, Go can’t shake off his habits as Duterte’s longtime aide. So persistent are his links with the Palace that Palace staff still have special protocols should Go wish to be interviewed by Malacañang reporters.

Duterte also still frequently mentions Go in his speeches, calling him “Senator Go,” as he did during the campaign season to promote Go’s candidacy to his audience. 

Most prominent of all was when Duterte highlighted, not only Go, but Go's pet bills in his State of the Nation Address last July 22, Go’s official first day on the job as senator since it was on this day when the 18th Congress convened.

And even if he is no longer SAP, Go apparently still gets first dibs on Duterte’s decisions. It was from him that reporters got information about the appointments of SC Justice Zalameda and agriculture chief William Dar, even before Malacañang could confirm them.

Work as senator

But striving to be by Duterte’s side in his official functions is bound to take time and resources.

What type of work is a senator expected to spend his time on?

“As senator, Bong Go can use his time familiarizing himself with the work of a senator, brainstorming with his staff on urgent legislation, meeting constituents and lobby groups, focusing on the committees assigned to him,” said professor Ela Atienza, chairperson of the University of the Philippines’ political science department.

Go is chairperson of two Senate committees, health and sports.

Atienza added that Go can also solicit position papers from different sectors on proposed laws that could affect them or study the work of executive agencies since the Senate also has oversight functions, she added. 

But another way of thinking about Go’s unflagging appearances with Duterte is it’s one way to ensure harmony between the Senate and the President.

Go’s fellow senators think his closeness can help them understand Duterte and his legislative priorities better. The Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) is technically supposed to do that job. The office has been criticized by senators in the past for lackluster work. 

But with Duterte’s highly personalistic style and the premium he places on trust and personal loyalty, Go might just be the go-between Congress needs to prevent more vetoed bills, the surest sign of a disconnect between the executive and legislative branches. (READ: House, Senate eye 'zero veto' in 18th Congress)

But then could Go have achieved that job better by heading the PLLO? Especially since being senator comes with one other requirement: independence.

Democracies in presidential forms of government are rooted in the separation of the legislative and executive branch so that the two can balance each other and serve as a check on the other’s powers.

“It does not reflect well on the ideal expectation that a senator should represent a branch separate from that of the President,” said Atienza.

With Go still appearing by Duterte’s side like an aide, the public will continue to see the newbie senator as someone who enjoys the best access to the President. It’s a strong political message. Go enjoys the powers of elected office but still gets to whisper in Duterte’s ear.

“It shows that the personal ties between the two are still being flaunted in public even if they should be working in different branches of government,” said Atienza.

Apart from his events with the President, Go busies himself with visits to fire victims and other personal engagements. On August 1, police beat reporters were surprised to see him take over their regular press briefing with police chief General Oscar Albayalde.

Go, wearing camouflage-patterned polo, took to the podium to allege a new conspiracy by opposition politicians to ruin his reputation and that of other administration allies.  

With his newfound stature as senator and his ever-strong ties with the President, it seems there’s no stopping Go. – with a report from Aika Rey/Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines — Political propaganda on social media is a given, especially during the elections. As digital media and online spaces become more and more indispensable in our day-to-day lives, they've become new bailiwicks for candidates and their campaign strategists to target.

After the 2016 elections, we've observed the rise of new online personalities who have made names for themselves as political commentators. Do they still dominate these spaces in 2019? Are their new players in the disinformation and propaganda architecture?

Rappler talks to Jonathan Ong, one of the authors of Tracking Digital Disinformation in the 2019 Philippine Midterm Election about new disinformation tactics and strategies in the 2019 elections.

The study, co-authored by Ross Tapsell and Nicole Curato, discusses how disinformation and propaganda operations have evolved.

Watch the interview live on Friday, August 9, 2019 at 4 pm! —Rappler.com

Excitement, not tension, was palpable at the Department of Justice (DOJ) executive lounge on Friday morning, August 9, for the first hearing on the highly-political inciting to sedition complaint against key members of the opposition and high figures in the Catholic Church.

Only a handful of the 36 respondents were present. None of the political superstars, such as Vice President Leni Robredo, were there. But for the legal world, the hearing was nothing short of star-studded.

Staunch martial law critic and former senator Rene Saguisag attended for his client, Senator Risa Hontiveros. Saguisag and Jose “Ka Pepe” Diokno represented martial law victims during the military rule of Ferdinand Marcos.

Ka Pepe's son Chel, himself a human rights lawyer, reunited with his fellow Otso Diretso senatorial candidates, Erin Tañada and Florin Hilbay, during the hearing. The 3 are all lawyers and are all respondents in the complaint.

Diokno's lawyer is Arno Sanidad of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG). Sanidad has defended rebels from the left and the right, first representing communists and then military rebels in the Reform the Armed Forces Movement.

Sanidad was the one who got the ball rolling in what would have otherwise been a procedural hearing on Friday. (READ: Looking at 'inciting to sedition' in the time of Duterte)

"Just for the record, I just want a clarification as to what is the authority of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to be the lead counsel in this case," Sanidad said, bringing up the mood in the room full of noted lawyers.

The question on the OSG's mandate to participate in a criminal prosecution became that day's main story. It was the first time that the OSG's mandate was being questioned in a legal proceeding. The DOJ required the OSG to explain in 5 days.

Biting words

After Sanidad spoke, Saguisag stood up to adopt the same manifestation. He added, "The OSG should be the tribune of the people, not tuta (lapdog) of this administration," rousing the people in the room.

In a statement later that day, Solicitor General Jose Calida slammed Saguisag's statement, calling it "gutter talk."

"Mr Saguisag should know better than to resort to gutter talk against his colleagues, with whom he has the duty to treat with courtesy, fairness, and candor," Calida said.

In that moment at the DOJ, Assistant Solicitor General Angelita Miranda – one of OSG's top guns – stood up and said, "Let's be professionals here," but the DOJ panel allowed Saguisag to finish his manifestation.

Senator Leila de Lima's lawyer, Filibon Tacardon, made a more pointed opposition to the OSG's "tribune of the people" defense. Tacardon has been taking on the DOJ since 2017 for De Lima's 3 counts of drug charges at the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court.

In fact, on Friday, Tacardon had a morning hearing for De Lima in Muntinlupa, but instead chose to attend the DOJ hearing for the sedition complaint. 

"If and when any matter resolved by this honorable panel is raised in the Court of Appeals, it is still the OSG who will represent this panel," Tacardon said, pointing out conflict of interest in the OSG's insistence in taking part in a criminal prosecution.

The OSG's main mandate is to represent the government in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals in all criminal proceedings. 

Hilbay, the former solicitor general before Calida, said later during an interview that the OSG under him "never" meddled in criminal investigations because it violated the legal spirit behind the creation of the office in the first place.

"Gusto ng Kongreso, ng batas, na malaya ang Opisina ng Tagausig Panlahat na magdesisyon sa mga apela sa criminal cases. Kung nakikialam na siya sa imbestigasyon pa lang, wala na 'yung kalayaan na 'yun, masisira 'yung intensiyon ng batas," Hilbay said.

(The Congress, and the law, envisioned the Office of the Solicitor General to be free to decide appeals in criminal cases. If it meddles as early as the investigation level, it loses that freedom, and it goes against the law's intent.)

Legal heavyweights

Not present on Friday but another legal heavyweight in this case is constitutionalist Christian Monsod, who will represent Bishop Teodoro Bacani, one of the 7 priests and bishops named in the inciting to sedition complaint.

Vice President Leni Robredo's lawyer is Marlon Manuel, a human rights lawyer who has 20 years experience in public interest lawyering. He represented Marawi residents in questioning President Rodrigo Duterte's martial law in Mindanao.

Neri Colmenares and Edre Olalia of the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) were there on Friday for "moral support," and lightly joked about their inclusion in the false Malacañang-backed Bikoy matrix but exclusion in the sedition complaint.

Also spotted was Far Eastern University Law Dean Mel Sta Maria, who later posted on Facebook: "It's always great to see this small community of lawyers who have decided to journey the 'road less traveled' in the law profession. We may not be working in airconditioned and carpeted law offices, but we like what we are doing for what we believe is good for our country."

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is still represented by Rey Robles, a veteran lawyer who got Trillanes out of the amnesty broil brought onto the senator by Calida and Duterte in late 2018.

The respondents themselves were noted lawyers. Aside from Diokno, Tañada, and Hilbay, there were former Supreme Court spokesperson Ted Te, former Integrated Bar of the Philippines national president Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo, current IBP president Domingo "Egon" Cayosa, veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, FLAG lawyer Fhillip Sawali, who is De Lima's chief of staff, and IBP's legal aid head Minerva Ambrosio. 

FLAG is, in fact, throwing its full force behind its pañeros named respondents in the case: Diokno, Tañada, Te, and Sawali.

First salvo

Not only did Sanidad put the spotlight on the OSG, FLAG's first pleading was to question the legality of the DOJ panel itself. They questioned Secretary Menardo Guevarra's legal authority to form the panel, when, according to the group, the justice secretary's function over prosecutors is limited to the review process and cases involving acts of terrorism.

"The authority of the panel is likewise questioned by some of the respondents, so we will issue a written order with respect to all the issues raised in the respective motions, so if you want to go up, everything is in the record," said DOJ panel head Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas.

On the first day of the hearing alone, the lawyers successfully deferred the submission of their clients' counter-affidavits. They argued: how can they answer a complaint that is not only vague, but is also not supported by any other evidence aside from Bikoy's testimony?

The complaint of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) was 3 pages long and did not detail the specific participation of the respondents in the so-called Project Sodoma.

There was also confusion over things like the inclusion of running priest Father Robert Reyes in the complaint, when the affidavit actually referred to a Jesuit Father Ruben Reyes.

"If the complaint is vague, and did not mention your client, would that not favor the cause of your client?" Torrevillas asked, which elicited a few hearty laughs from the lawyers.

"But, anyway, the CIDG is represented by the OSG. They know what to do," Torrevillas added.

Indeed, the OSG knows what to do. It wouldn't enjoy an overwhelming winning streak in the Supreme Court if it didn’t.

The challenge has been laid out for the battle-tested lawyers representing the respondents. What would they do? – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – With the Duterte government backing him, Peter Joemel Advincula has become one of the country's most powerful storytellers.

So potent is his tale that it has given flesh to a complaint of inciting to sedition against the country’s Vice President Leni Robredo, along with other recognizable figures of the opposition Liberal Party (LP).

The Department of Justice (DOJ) started on Friday, August 9, its preliminary investigation into the inciting to sedition complaint against Robredo, two incumbent senators, two former senators, one former congressman, a former Cabinet secretary, 6 senatorial candidates, and the former head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, among others.

The police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) seeks to jail Robredo and the key opposition members for up to 6 years over what they call “Project Sodoma,” a supposed destabilization plot against the Duterte administration with Advincula as one of its pillars.

Lawyer Larry Gadon, himself a former senatorial candidate, also floated the idea of impeaching Robredo on the basis of a possible indictment from the DOJ, and not even a conviction.

Much of it will depend on the story of the man who came to be known as "Bikoy." 

Since 2016, Bikoy’s story has altered and morphed, its characters changing circumstances and motivations. 

Before taking him in as their star witness, police chief Oscar Albayalde described Bikoy as an “information peddler.”

We track his story beginning December 2016 and list the most glaring holes in his accounts. It begins with a sensational tale set in an underground room in a Bicol resort and a made-for-movies account of CCTV footage catching no other than the Philippine president supposedly taking an envelope and flying off in a private plane.

Under CIDG custody, Advincula has now discarded the entire underground story, and has pivoted completely to Project Sodoma against the opposition.

To see the changing testimonies of Advincula, press, hold, drag to the left or to the right, and release the sliders in the middle of the illustrations.

I. Underground room in Misibis Bay

Back in 2016, Advincula was just one of thousands of prisoners inside the New Bilibid Prison. He was serving a 6-year sentence for estafa handed down in 2012. By December, he had an idea for a way out.

He reached out to the office of Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, and told them the story of how he met Bicolano business tycoon Zaldy Co.

Advincula said Co hired him to be a technical man for the so-called Quadrangle Drug Group he claimed was based in Misibis Bay resort in Bicol. There, Advincula was supposedly given access to the CCTV room of underground quarters of the syndicate he called the "Central House."

Advincula also told Sotto’s team that aside from minding the cameras, he was also a leader of a drug delivery team.

What he claimed to have seen in the monitors could be damaging to any presidency: that in April 2011, former president Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, his justice secretary at the time, Leila de Lima, his executive secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr, and Mar Roxas paid repeated visits to the syndicate’s headquarters.

"Nakita ko din po o nahagip din ng Camera 36 ng aming CCTV footage sa technical room ng sindikato ang pag-abot ng dalawang brown envelope ni Elizalde Co kay dating Pangulong Noynoy Aquino, na iniaabot naman ni dating Pangulong Noynoy Aquino kay undersecretary Ricardo Puno.......Hapon ng araw ding yuon nilisan ni Pangulong Aquino ang Misibis Bay lulan ng private helicopter na pagmamay-ari po ni Elizaldy Co," Advincula said in this affidavit.

(I saw through Camera 36 of our CCTV footage in the syndicate’s technical room that Elizalde Co handed over two brown envelopes to former president Noynoy Aquino, who then handed them to undersecretary Ricardo Puno...That afternoon, President Aquino left Misibis Bay, aboard a private helicopter owned by Elizaldy Co.)

At the height of the Bikoy issue in May 2019, Sotto came out to say Advincula had approached him in 2016 but that he found his claims suspicious.

During that time, De Lima was being investigated by the House justice committee for supposed participation in the drug trade inside Bilibid. Her bodyguard Ronnie Dayan was her alleged bagman.

“He wanted to be a witness against Senator De Lima,” Sotto said.

Advincula was never invited as a witness in the 2016 public trial of De Lima, his name unknown until he became Bikoy.

II. Becoming Bikoy

This anti-Aquino administration narrative was overhauled in 2019, when Advincula assumed the character he is most known as today. He was already a free man, but he said he felt he needed to say something about the Duterte administration.

He shrouded himself with a hood, spoke in the safety of shadows and called himself “Bikoy.”

In this new story, Advincula introduced himself as a former member of a Bicol-based “Quadrangle Drug Syndicate,” but this time he claimed to be in charge of managing financial documents and scanning supposed tattoos that senior syndicate members bore to claim their monthly shares in drug money.

He retained Ochoa, Puno, and added former Aquino cabinet secretaries Proceso Alcala and Ramon Paje as cast members. But he went on to hurl accusations against people close to President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Paolo Duterte, Veronica Salvador, Bong Go, at Mans Carpio. Sila po ang main players from Davao side na lumalabas sa mga dokumentong hawak ko (From the documents that I hold, they appear to be the main players from the Davao side),” Advincula said in episode 4 of the video series, calling them part of the so-called Tausug drug group.

Advincula claimed that he saw Paolo Duterte and Go inside Misibis Bay repeatedly, and that he himself scanned their supposed syndicate tattoos.

He again accused Bicol tycoon Elizaldy Co of keeping the drug syndicate in his Misibis Bay resort, and then accused other Bicolano politicians of being part of the Quadrangle Group, namely:

• Edgardo Tallado
• Krunimar Escudero
• Victor Rosales
• Luis Villafuerte
• Thomas Enrile
• Fernando Gonzales
• Joseph Cua
• Tess Rañola

III. The untold story of 'Oplan Yellow'

His accusations in the video are only part of a longer unsigned affidavit by Bikoy and obtained by Rappler.

"Sa bawat pagpupulong ng mga patron at patriarchal sa Quadrangle Central House ay naroon parati sila Paolo Duterte, Bong Go, at James Baay kasama ang iba pang Chinese nationalities, businessmen, at matataas na police officials ng aming rehiyon at maging sa lugar ng Davao City na pawang mga kasama nila Paolo Duterte," said Advincula in the affidavit dated January 25, 2019.

(In every meeting of the patrons and patriarchs of the Quadriangle Central House, there was Paolo Duterte, Bong Go, and James Baay, with other Chinese nationals, businessmen, and high-ranking police officials of our region and Davao City, who accompanied Paolo Duterte.)

He expanded it to another narrative, which included "Oplan Yellow" in which he claimed to have seen President Rodrigo Duterte himself inside Bilibid during his detention, plotting drug charges against his fierce critic De Lima.

Advincula said in the affidavit that he was convicted of large-scale illegal recruitment that sent him to Bilibid on May 27, 2016.

By August 2016, Advincula claimed to have seen former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, former interior secretary Ismael Sueno, and the police chief at the time, and now senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa, enter Bilibid to meet with drug convicts.

Advincula claimed to have been part of a secretariat in the Inmate's Complaints Information and Assistance Center (ICIAC) of Bilibid's Medium Security compound, where he said, he prepared some "Oplan Yellow" documents.

"Sa ilang pagkakataon ay kami pa mismo ng aking mga kasamahang technical secretariat ang tumatawag sa mga nabanggit na contact numbers upang magbigay ng update o situationary development o maging sa iba pang idagdag ng pahayag tungkol sa aming inihahandang mga scripted sinumpaang salaysay ng mga high-profile inmates at convicted drug lords na magsasalita laban kay Sen Leila de Lima," Advincula said.

(At times, my companions and I from the technical secretariat called the numbers to give updates and situationary developments and additions about the scripted sworn statements we were preparing for the high-profile inmates and convicted drug lords against Senator Leila de Lima.)

Advincula added: "Sabado, ikalawang linggo ng Setyembre taong 2016 sa pagitan ng oras na ika-walo at ika-siyam ng gabi.....may sunud-sunod na pumasok na mga sasakyan sa Medium Security Compound lulan ang Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte kasama sila Secretary Bong Go, Secretary Salvador Panelo, Secretary Jose Calida at iilan pang matataas na opisyal ng Office of the President at Presidential Security Group."

(On Saturday, in the second week of September, year 2016, between 6 and 8 pm...there was a convoy of cars at the Medium Security Compound carrying President Rodrigo Duterte, with Secretary Bong Go, Secretary Salvador Panelo, Secretary Jose Calida, and other high-ranking officials of the Office of the President and the Presidential Security Group.)

IV. The turnaround

As his accusations against the Duterte administration sparked controversy, Advincula showed up in a press conference held at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) headquarters on May 6.

There, he asked for help to sue Paolo Duterte and Go.

But two days later on May 8, Advincula stood at the pedestal of the PNP in Camp Crame, baring another grand twist to his story.

Advincula retracted all his public statements against the Dutertes and Go, and then accused their political nemesis, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, of masterminding the anti-administration accusations.

He claimed that it was the Liberal Party who was behind the Ang Totoong Narco List (The Real Narco List) videos, with involvement reaching up to Vice President Leni Robredo.

Trillanes has denied Advincula's claims, but admitted to meeting him in August 2018 to vet his claims.

"Pinakinggan ko siya, subalit nakulangan at naguluhan ako sa mga detalye at isinantabi ko at tuluyan ko nang kinalimutan," the senator said.

(I listened to him, but I found his testimony lacking and confusing. I set it aside and totally forgot about it.)

Before he could start a new narrative, however, Advincula had to clean a messy plate.

He disowned his two previous affidavits, and admitted that everything about the underground room in Misibis Bay was false.

But in retracting, he made another accusation that should interest investigators if they truly believe in Advincula – that there was a plot of sorts from within the Bureau of Corrections to jail De Lima for drugs.

"Isinubo lang sa akin ito ng mga tauhan ng Bureau of Corrections (This was only fed to me by the people of the Bureau of Corrections)," Advincula said, referring to purported documents on the illegal drug trade being linked to De Lima.

“During that time sa BuCor kasi kailangan magkaroon ng direct link na mismong si Sen De Lima talaga ay mayroon mismong sindikato ng droga...pinagtitiwala ko na muna sa otoridad 'yun but they are the personnel of the Bucor na may matinding galit din kay Sen De Lima,” he said during his press conference in Camp Crame.

(During that time at the BuCor, there was a need to establish a direct link between Senator De Lima herself and the drug syndicate...I only entrusted it to authorities, but the people of BuCor held an intense grudge against Senator De Lima.)

V. CIDG affidavits inconsistent

Advincula has executed two CIDG affidavits that link the Project Sodoma conspiracy with the opposition, one dated May 29, 2019, and the other, dated July 17, 2019. The July 17 version is the one that was submitted to the DOJ when the CIDG filed the complaint of inciting to sedition.

Even in these affidavits, Advincula made contradictory claims.

In both, Advincula said he first asked Father Ruben Reyes for financial help in August 2018. Advincula said he knows Reyes because the latter, a Jesuit, served as the chaplain of the Naga City Jail where he served time before Bilibid.

Advincula claimed Reyes linked him up with other priests associated with the Ateneo– all of whom are also respondents in the sedition complaint.

Advincula said that through the Jesuit priests, he met Trillanes on August 29, 9 pm, at the Jesuit Residence inside Ateneo.

In the first affidavit, Advincula said he met Trillanes again on February 9 at the residence of Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David. But in the second affidavit, Advincula said Trillanes participated in the meeting at the Bishop's residence only by calling Father Albert Alejo through ProtonMail. ProtonMail is a secure email service and does not have a call feature.

On October 11, 2018, Advincula said he met top aides of Trillanes at the Loyola School of Theology where he was handed his 2016 affidavit – the one involving Aquino, De Lima, Roxas etc – but revised and replaced with Duterte and Go.

"Pinag-usapan namin ang dokumento na ibinigay ko sa kanila ni Senator Trillanes noong nakaraang Agosto subalit nakita ko na may ibang version na ito at ang tinutukoy na ay ang pamilyang Duterte at si Bong Go," said Advincula in both affidavits.

(We spoke about the document I gave to Senator Trillanes and the others in August, but I saw that there was a different version that now referred to the Duterte family and Bong Go.)

VI. Targeting the VP

Advincula claimed he met Robredo on March 4 at Leong Hall inside Ateneo, along with Otso Diretso candidates, with only Roxas missing.

In his first affidavit in May 2019, he claimed Robredo dropped by and spent 10 minutes in the meeting. In the 2nd affidavit last July, he claimed Robredo participated in the meeting.

Advincula said in Filipino: "On March 4, 2019, around 4 pm, we had a meeting inside Leong Hall at ADMU, with candidates of Otso Diretso, namely Chel Diokno, Gary Alejano, Pilo Hilbay, Romy Macalintal, Samira Gutoc, Bam Aquino, and Erin Tañada. Present there too were Father Alejo, Vicente Romano, Yolly Ong, Dan Sungco, and Vice President Leni Robredo."

The Otso Diretso candidates and the Office of the Vice President (OVP) have denied Advincula's claims.

Alejano said the March 4 Ateneo narrative is convenient because the candidates were on campus for the Rappler senatorial forum.

"Bikoy's allegation against me is a complete lie and ridiculous. Again and again, I categorically state that I don't know Bikoy and have never met him. Tinaon niya ang kanyang kwento ng meeting daw niya sa Otso Diretso (8D) on March 4, 2019 where there was a Rappler Senatorial Forum in Leong Hall in Ateneo attended by the members of 8D. I must emphasize, though, that such activity was well covered by media and witnessed by many people both inside and outside the venue. Certainly, the truth will come out," said Alejano.

The two CIDG affidavits in May and July 2019 made mention of electronic traces of Advincula's communication with the people he is accusing, key cards of the apartments that he claimed were the Project Sodoma bases, as well as receipts for when they supposedly bought gadgets to shoot the Ang Totoong Narco List videos.

Witness credibility and corroboration are strong considerations of prosecutors when determining probable cause. The DOJ had once before cleared a drug suspect because of inaccuracies of an illiterate witness.

The DOJ wants to haul into its rooms the second highest official of the land, members of Congress and the Catholic Church – and line them up against a government star witness who has flip-flopped many times over. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – On Philippine Independence Day last June 12, two months ago today, the defense department broke some bad news: a Filipino fishing boat was sunk and abandoned by a Chinese vessel in Recto Bank (Reed Bank) in the West Philippine Sea. 

Life has not been the same again for the fishermen of Gem-Ver.

In this podcast, Rappler's Rambo Talabong and Sofia Tomacruz retell the fishermen's harrowing but inspiring journey at sea.

What's next for them? – Rappler.com

Part 1 | THE SINKING OF GEM-VER: Barko! May babanggang barko!
Conclusion | Despite Duterte, Gem-Ver fishermen buckle down to work
Profiles | IN THEIR OWN WORDS: The fishermen of Gem-Ver
Video | Gem-Ver fishermen eager to sail again

MANILA, Philippines – Thousands of pro-democracy protestors flocked to the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) on Monday, August 12, leading to cancellations of flights in and out of the region's busiest hubs. 

It is the latest in the crisis marred by protests and violence spanning at least 10 weeks already. 

More than 5,000 people flooded HKIA where they denounced police violations and attacked China. This, according to authorities, "seriously disrupted" airport operations. 

How vital is the HKIA? For starters, at least 1,100 flights arrive and depart daily. Here are other things you need to know: 

1. HKIA is only 21 years old 

The Hong Kong International Airport opened on July 6, 1998 and is located 30 kilometers northwest of Hong Kong Island. When it first opened its doors to the public, the airport was regarded as having the world’s largest passenger terminal buildings.  

Before HKIA, Hong Kong was serviced by then 73-year-old Kai Tak Airport. The creation of the new airport was in line with the growth of Hong Kong as the region’s business hub. Besides, the increasing number of passengers had already gone beyond the design capacity of Kai Tak Airport. 

The transition to the new airport, however, was not without any problems. When it was first opened in 1998, many said that facilities were not yet ready, including drainage systems and its baggage system.

HKIA’s first foreign visitors included then-United States president Bill Clinton whose presidential plane landed just hours after the airport was inaugurated. 

2. HKIA sits on reclaimed land

The HKIA was built on reclaimed land on the Chek Lap Kok island which provided bigger space than the Kowloon City District where the old airport used to be. The construction reclaimed  9.38 square kilometers of the seabed. 

According to reports, the 1,255-hectare site area contributed nearly 1% to the total surface area of Hong Kong.

The island was seen as a possible location as early as 1974, based on a planning study conducted by the Civil Aviation and Public Works department. The plan, however, was initially shelved due to financial constraints. 

3. HKIA is one of the world’s busiest airports

An entry into the region’s financial hub, the Hong Kong International Airport is understandably very busy. It is estimated that over 1,100 flights arrive and depart from HKIA daily. 

Fortunately, the airport can handle 68 flights per hour at peak hours. 

Its website says that in 2018, the airport was connected to over 220 destinations globally through the service of at least 120 airlines. 

HKIA has two terminals – Terminal 1 opened in July 1998, while Terminal 2 opened in June 2007.

In 2018, 74.7 million passengers and 5.1 million tons of cargo passed by HKIA, all meticulously handled by at least 73,000 staff. It has a total of 90 boarding gates and 78 jet bridge gates.  

The airport also recorded 427,725 air traffic movements in the same period on its two runways. 

4. HKIA is multi-awarded

The airport has consistently received awards for its top-notch service, including at least 70 “Best Airport Awards,” according to its website. 

From 2016 to 2019, HKIA was named the "Best Global Airport" by Asia Cargo News. It also received the "Freighter Hub of the Year" award in 2019. 

In 2018, it was named "Airport of the Year" by International Airport Review and "Best Airport in Asia" by Monocle. – Rappler.com

Who is this police official in Metro Manila who required cops in his district to pay P100 each for the renovation of two comfort rooms in his headquarters?

In July, this official summoned the Chief Executive Senior Police Officers (CESPOs) of the cities in his district and ordered them to collect P100 each from all the cops in their respective stations. 

The directive: should policemen refuse to hand over their personal money, the station commanders should list their names and make them sign on a blank piece of paper. He threatened to sue the cops who wouldn't cough up the money.

Some policemen didn't want to pay, pointing out that the district has a budget for Maintenance and Operating Expenses that should cover such projects. Their hands were tied, though. Out of fear, they paid P100 each. 

There are a few thousand cops in the cities in that district. Do the math. – Rappler.com 

Claim: Kabataan party-list representative Sarah Elago “responded” to the parents of student activists who are still minors, following the Senate probe into the disappearance of senior high school students allegedly recruited by leftist group Anakbayan.

On August 8, a photo started circulating on Facebook which stitched a portrait of Elago, a quotation attributed to her, and a photo of 3 crying parents during a Senate hearing held on August 7. It also included the logos of Kabataan, Anakbayan, and League of Filipino Students.

The text read: “Ang inyong mga anak ay hindi niyo mga anak. Dumaan lang sila sa inyo ngunit hindi niyo sila pag-aari. Sila ang pag-asa ng bayan hindi ang mga katulad niyong duwag at mga tuta ni Duterte.”

(Your children are not your children. They come through you but they do not belong to you. They are the hope of the nation, unlike you who are cowards and are lapdogs of Duterte.)

Facebook Claim Check, the social media network’s tool that detects potentially dubious content shared across the platform, flagged this post from the Enlightened PINOY page. A reader also emailed Rappler a version of the claim for fact-checking.

Enlightened PINOY captioned its post: “Sagot ng Kabataan partylist sa mga magulang na nawalan ng anak matapos ma-recruit bilang aktibista at kalaunan ay magiging teroristang NPA (Kabataan party-list's response to the parents who lost their children after being recruited to become activists, who will eventually become terrorists) #EndCPPNPANDF #NPAsalot #OustKabataanPartylist #dontbedeceived”.

Rappler traced the original photo to Facebook user Bogart Santos, whom Enlightened PINOY also credited in its post. Santos shared the photo with the exact same caption earlier on August 8.

Using CrowdTangle, Rappler found several other users, pages, and groups that shared the photo made by Santos. We spotted 7 Facebook users, 3 groups, and 4 pages that reposted Santos’ photo.

As of writing, the combined Facebook engagement from these accounts reached over 18,470 shares, 10,970 reactions, and 7,000 comments. These are the pages and groups that spread the claim:

Pages

• Enlightened PINOY
• Free Gen. Jovito Palparan
• Bayan Ko Ph
• Burgis Ng Tondo (used a different image but carried the same quotation)

Groups

• REAL PHILIPPINE HISTORY
• WE SUPPORT PDU30 ADMINISTRATION and WE SUPPORT BONGBONG MARCOS
• SENATOR CHRISTOPHER BONG GO MOVEMENT IN JAPAN

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The quotation included in the photos that circulated on social media did not come from Sarah Elago. It is similar to the first paragraph of Kahlil Gibran’s poem “On Children” from his book The Prophet, which reads:

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you."

On  August 9, Kabataan party-list denied the claim through its official Twitter account. Elago tweeted on her official account later that day to call for the takedown of the posts that wrongly quoted her.

FAKE NEWS ALERT:
QUOTE not mine nor from Kabataan! Enlightened Pinoy, Bayan Ko Ph, among other trollish FB pages, have launched this fake news attack yet again. Please help us report these pages! pic.twitter.com/MGmt9CxYoH

— Sarah Elago (@sarahelago) August 9, 2019

Rappler reached out to Santos to ask for the source of his post, but he hasn’t replied to our inquiries. We also couldn’t find the quoted lines in any of Elago’s recent interviews and statements from news reports.

On August 7, the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs held a hearing to investigate leftist groups’ alleged recruitment of minors in universities. Elago did not attend the meeting because of prior commitments and the short notice, which Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deputy chief of staff for civil-military operations Major Gen Antonio Parlade Jr called a “sloppy excuse.”

During the hearing, it was revealed that the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) filed kidnapping charges against top officials of Anakbayan on August 1, after a 17-year-old allegedly went missing after joining the group.

Elago released a statement addressing the issue on August 10, but it did not reflect the quoted remarks in the photos. – 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.

MANILA, Philippines – The massive pro-democracy protests that stemmed from an unpopular extradition bill are not the first in Hong Kong history. 

Since the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997, the region’s financial hub has seen various demonstrations that have drawn huge crowds.  

The power of the people in Hong Kong showed itself prior to 1997 through the solidarity protests joined by more than a million individuals condemning the Tiananmen Square protests.  

What were the subjects of these protests since 1997? Rappler lists key events: 

Annual July 1 protests

A series of protest rallies organized by the Civil Human Rights Front occurs every July 1 of each year coinciding with the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

Anti-National Security Bill protests in 2003 

Issue:
Protesters condemned the attempt to implement the HK Basic Law Article 23 through the National Security Bill of 2003. According to critics, the bill would have introduced policies that curtail freedom of speech. 

Period:
July 1 to September 5, 2003 

Total turnout:
Peaked at an estimated 350,000-700,000 protesters on July 1, 2003. Various pocket protests drew crowds of more than 50,000. The estimated numbers are beyond what the organizers expected (only 20,000). 

Government response and outcome:
Several key officials resigned, including then-Liberal Party chairman James Tien, Security Secretary Regina Ip, and Financial Secretary Antony Leung. The HKSAR government postponed deliberations on the bill with temporary plans to open discussions, although without any timetable. There have been no developments since then. 

Pro-democracy protests in 2010

Issue: 
The series of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2010 were triggered by several problematic policies and actions by the HKSAR government, including electoral reforms that critics deemed “undemocratic," the continuous detainment of activist Liu Xiaobo, and the planned railway project that would connect Hong Kong to Guangzhou, China. 

Dates:
January 1, March 2, and July 1, 2010

Total turnout:
Each protest drew thousands of people – 9,000 in January, 3,000 in May, and at least 50,000 in July. 

Government response and outcome: 
Although the electoral reform package was passed, the 2010 pro-democracy protests were seen as the beginning and stepping stone for much bigger demonstrations in the coming years. 

Anti-national education protests in 2012

Issue: 
Several organizations, including the Civil Alliance Against the National Education, protested the planned implementation of the moral and national education curriculum in Hong Kong. According to critics, the curriculum is a way for the government to “brainwash” children into supporting ideals of China’s Communist Party. 

Period:
August 30 to September 8, 2012

Total turnout:
Organizers estimate that more than 90,000 protesters occupied the surrounding area of the HK government headquarters for 10 days. 

Government response and outcome: 
There is still no significant development regarding the implementation of the national education in HK curriculum. In 2017, the South China Morning Post reported that the current government is working towards reviving and prioritizing it despite opposition. 

Labor strike and public demonstrations in 2013

Issue: 
The public joined employees of the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal who went on strike to protest the planned outsourcing of the workforce and to demand an improvement in working conditions. 

Period:
The labor strike itself took 40 days, from March 28 to May 7, 2013. The accompanying public demonstration, however, started on April 7, 2013. 

Total turnout:
Organizers estimated that at least 4,000 people joined the march but police said the crowd reached at least 2,800 only

Government response and outcome: 
The strike hit the operations of the busy port, resulting in backlogs of container processing. The port authorities and workers agreed on a 9.8% increase in pay, according to a BBC report in 2013. 

2014 Umbrella Revolution

Issue: 
The public protested against the electoral reforms introduced by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, particularly what critics called the problematic nominating committee for the 2017 chief executive election. The protesters also called for the resignation of then-chief executive Leung Chun-ying. 

Period:
September 26 to December 15, 2014, or a total of 77 days

Total turnout:
The protests occurred in 4 key areas in Hong Kong: Admiralty, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok, and Tsim Sha Tsui. According to organizers, the crowd peaked at an estimated 100,000 “at any given time.” 

Government response and outcome: 
Almost 1,000 people were arrested throughout the demonstrations with more than 200 activists injured. 

Among those arrested and eventually imprisoned were prominent leaders who included Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Alex Chow. In 2016, the courts found Wong and Chow guilty of taking part in an unlawful assembly while Law was found guilty of inciting others to take part. 

In 2017, the Court of Appeals upheld the convictions and sentenced the 3 to prison terms of from 6 to 8 months. 

2019 anti-extradition bill

Issue: 
The public condemned the introduction of a bill that would allow extraditions to any jurisdiction, particularly to mainland China. According to the government, it is an effort to prevent Hong Kong from being a place full of fugitives. Groups fear that the bill would lead to China’s further control on people, especially civil society, and those advocating for free speech.   

Period: 
The pro-democracy protests started on March 31, 2019 and are still ongoing. In total, as of August 13, the demonstrations have already run for more than 4 months. 

Total turnout:
Many report that the 2019 protests are the biggest in the history of Hong Kong. The biggest crowd drew an estimated two million people. 

Government response and outcome:
The massive protests have led to positive developments, including the suspension of the extradition bill on June 15. Chief Executive Carrie Lam on June 16 apologized to the public for the bill, eventually saying by July 9 that it is dead.  

Despite these, demonstrations and clashes between protesters and police continue. As of Monday, August 12, at least 700 people have been arrested and more than 230 people injured. – Rappler.com

Claim: Retired Army Major General Jovito Palparan did not abduct University of the Philippines (UP) students-activists but the New People’s Army (NPA) did.

A lengthy post on Facebook urged President Rodrigo Duterte to free Palparan. The post contained many claims, particularly the justification for Palparan's going after communist rebels in the country.

It also included many empty praises for the retired general's bravery in targeting and attacking the supposed enemies of the State. 

A part of the post claimed:

“Ang sinasabing pinakidnap raw ni Palparan na mga estudyante sa UP DILIMAN ay hindi siya ang may gawa kundi mga SALOT NA KOMUNISTA DIN na KAKAMPI RIN NG MGA ITO. Wala na kasing choice ang mga NPA dahil hindi nila mapabagsak si Heneral Palparan at dahan dahan na silang nalalagas.”

(Palparan did not kidnap UP Diliman students as claimed. It's the plague of communists, who are also their comrades, behind this. The NPAs have no choice because they could not get rid of General Palparan, and their ranks are thinning.)

The claim was originally posted by Facebook page Sangkay Janjan TV on October 2018. It was recently posted again – as spotted via tool CrowdTangle – by Facebook group President Rody Duterte-Federal Movement International on July 31. Sangkay Janjan TV’s post has since been widely shared over 105,400 times with 63,000 reactions and 12,000 comments.  

Rating: FALSE

The facts: Palparan was found guilty over the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of two missing UP students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan in 2006. The Malolos Regional Trial Court (RTC) handed down the guilty verdict on September 17, 2018. (READ: People of the Philippines vs Jovito Palparan)

The testimony of several eyewitnesses strengthened the evidence to warrant the conviction of the retired general. Aside from Palparan, Lieutenant Colonel Felipe Anotado and S/Sgt Edgardo Osorio were also indicted by the court. 

Malolos Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Alexander Tamayo sentenced Palparan and two military officials to a maximum of 40 years in prison and a fine amounting to P100,000 for civil indemnity and P200,000 for moral damages. (READ: Palparan's guilty verdict: Who is Malolos Judge Alexander Tamayo?)

On June 26, 2006, Cadapan and Empeño went missing in Hagonoy, Bulacan. During that time, they were UP students who were accused of being members of the Community Party of the Philippines (CPP).

In December 2011, the Department of Justice (DOJ) found probable cause to charge Palparan, Anotado, and Osario with kidnapping and serious illegal detention. The Malolos RTC ordered Palparan's arrest the same year. He went into hiding until he was arrested in Sta Mesa, Manila on August 12, 2014. (TIMELINE: The search for Jovito Palparan)

The page which claimed Palparan was innocent did not provide strong proof that the NPA, or the communists, were the ones who abducted the UP students.

In its "About" section, Facebook page Sangkay Janjan TV said that its posts are "more on 'opinion' [since] we have freedom of speech in our country so I am free to express my own opinion here." Meanwhile, the Facebook page President Rody Duterte-Federal Movement International is under Rappler's watchlist of Facebook pages that spread false information on social media. – Glenda Marie Castro/ 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.

Bookmark this page to catch the interview live on Thursday, August 15, at 10 am!

MANILA, Philippines – Recent developments in the West Philippine Sea showed that China's expansive claim to the area has remained unchanged despite friendlier ties with the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duerte.

On Thursday, August 15, Rappler editor-at-large Marites Vitug talks to Bill Hayton of Chatham House – or the Royal Institute of International Affairs – about how China spreads information on alleged false historical claims and what the concept of "imagined territories" is about. 

Hayton is currently an Associate Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Program under Chatham House. He has been a journalist at BBC News since 1998, covering Southeast Asia, and has written extensively on the South China Sea dispute.

How vital is social media when it comes to spreading China's claims? Watch the discussion live on Thursday, August 15, at 10 am! – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – On Tuesday, August 13, a transgender woman was barred from entering a women's restroom of a Cubao mall and was sent to the Quezon City Police District's Anti-Cybercrime Division in Camp Karingal after she took videos while confronting the janitress about the issue. (READ: Trans woman Gretchen Diez: I didn't think I'd be treated like a criminal)

The transgender woman, Gretchen Custodio Diez, was shocked when it happened – discrimination was banned in the city, she said, which is why she regularly visited Cubao. (READ: Farmers Plaza apologizes to Gretchen Diez, distances from errant employee)

Diez was refering to the Quezon City (QC) Gender-Fair Ordinance, which prohibits discrimination against people's sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE).

Geraldine Roman, 1st District Representative of Bataan and the first transgender woman to be voted into the House of Representatives, called it the "most advanced" anti-LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) discrimination ordinance in the country.

What makes the QC Gender-Fair Ordinance so special?

Prohibited vs affirmative acts

The Gender-Fair Ordinance was authored by Councilor Mayen Juico and passed on November 28, 2014 by then-mayor Herbert Bautista.

The ordinance prohibits discrimination against LGBTQ+ members in their workplace and educational institutions and in the delivery of goods and services and accommodation.

Discrimination against the community is also not allowed – whether in the form of verbal and non-verbal ridicule, harassment, barred entry and refusal of service, promotion of discrimination against LGBT, and other analogous acts.

The ordinance also lists "affirmative acts" that should be adopted in these areas, like equal pay and sensitivity training in workplaces.

Gender-fair city

Even before the Gender-Fair Ordinance was passed, Quezon City already had other gender equality initiatives.

In 2004, then-mayor Feliciano Belmonte signed the Gender and Development Code, which focused mainly on women's rights.

In March 2013, Bautista established the QC Pride Council (QCPC), which is supposed to integrate the city's programs with the LGBT community. The Gender-Fair Ordinance stipulated who the members of this council should be and what its functions are.

The 2014 ordinance took gender equality a step further by requiring that SOGIE concerns be dealt with by the QCPD's violence against women and children desk, and allocating 5% of the city's annual budget to gender and development plans, projects, and programs.

It even requires a pride march to be held every first Saturday of December.

'All gender CRs'

For Diez's case specifically, QC Mayor Joy Belmonte said that the mall where the incident happened did violate the Gender-Fair Ordinance.

Section V, 1d of the ordinance says, "All government agencies, private offices, and commercial/industrial establishments shall designate toilet rooms and lavatories labeled as all gender CR."

Anyone who violates the ordinance can be imprisoned for 60 days to one year, or pay a fine of P1,000 to P5,000.

First of its kind

In response to Diez's experience, Belmonte said that QC was the first city to pass anything like the Gender-Fair Ordinance. The same was said when it was first passed.

Though there are cities, provinces, and barangays across the Philippines that have anti-discrimination ordinances, the Philippines is still waiting on a nationwide SOGIE equality bill to be passed into law.

The SOGIE Equality Bill was approved by the House of Representatives in 2017, after a 17-year long wait. It is still pending approval with the Senate. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Just a month after being acquitted from charges accusing him of spreading “terrorist propaganda,” Mehmet Atakan Foça, founder of Turkish fact-checker Teyit.org, is under new attack.

Politician Sinan Oğan, a former member of parliament with the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party, shared on August 3 on his official Twitter account an article that claims Foça is the son of Abdullah Öcalan, the founder of the far-left Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

The webpage Oğan shared is now inaccessible, but his tweet is still up. Oğan has over one million followers as of writing.

İlginç bir haber!
Bir doğrulama sitesinin sahibinin PKK elebaşı Öcalan’ın oğlu olduğu iddia ediliyor!
Bence teyit. org un bu iddiayı teyit etmesi gerekir! https://t.co/iYIwAgXBO8

— Sinan Oğan (@DrSinanOgan) August 3, 2019

The PKK is a far-left political organization formed in 1978 that espouses Kurdish nationalist ideals. It has been tagged by the Turkish government and the United States as a terrorist organization.

“It is the most absurd thing I have ever seen in this field until today,” Foça said. “Beyond that, it is very dangerous for all of our team members.”

Started with a fact check

Oğan's claim came after Teyit.org published one fact check article that involves him.

On July 29, Teyit.org released a fact check of an image of a man holding a placard that says, “Türkler Defolsun (Turks get out)!" during a rally in Istanbul on July 27 protesting the decision of the Turkish government against Syrian refugees. 

In the article, Teyit.org pointed out that the photo of the placard that went viral on Facebook was incomplete. They explained that if the placard had been shown in full, the message about racism would not have been lost. 

The placard actually bore the photo too of Dutch politician Geert Wilders, with a quote attributed to him: "Turks get out!" He is known to be against Turkish migrants in the Netherlands.

The placard juxtaposed Wilders' photo and quote with that of Oğan and his words, “Suriyeliler Defolsun (Syrians get out)!" to show that the two politicians – one against the Turks, and the other against Syrians – were no different from each other.

A telling poster from the protest in support of Syrian refugees in Istanbul:

Wilders: Turks out!
Sinan Oğan: Syrians out!
There is no difference! #Notoracismpic.twitter.com/6SlJcueN9G

— Yusuf Sarfati (@y_sarfati) July 28, 2019

After Teyit.org published its fact check, Oğan denied that he ever said “Syrians get out.” The Turkish fact checker added Oğan's statement in its article but the politician challenged Teyit.org to further fact check the veracity of what was written on the placard.

At the same time, he continued to attack the organization in a series of social media posts, calling them biased, and spread the malicious claim about Foça.

Teyit.org is not backing down

Despite this, the almost two-year-old fact-checking organization has shown no signs of backing down.

“Politician Sinan Ogan is attacking at @teyitorg for a while as we often debunk claims about Syrian refugees living in Turkey. It's clear we piss him off a lot with our fact-checks on refugees but his bizarre and baseless claims about me and Teyit won't stop us from doing our job,” Foça tweeted on August 5.

Foça founded Teyit.org in 2016 as an independent fact-checking organization. It's one of the two Turkish verified signatories to the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) and has been deemed compliant with IFCN's principles since 2017. (READ: Rappler now a member of the International Fact-Checking Network)

As verified by a third-party evaluator for the IFCN, Teyit.org classifies itself as a non-profit social enterprise that focuses on social impact. It has published fact checks on a variety of topics including elections, crisis situations involving the military, and health issues among others.

In its first year, Teyit.org had received a total of 7,628 messages, and more than half of these, or 3,820, were “reported doubtful contents.” The organization fact-checked more than 16% of these, while a huge chunk, or 62.5%, were unpublished due to lack of sufficient and/or reliable information and proof. The remaining were either archived or excluded. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

Claim: Former president Benigno Aquino III left P6.4 trillion worth of debt to the Duterte administration in 2016.

Rappler spotted the claim via CrowdTangle, which was shared by user Leticia Marquez on Facebook group Tulfo Brothers Worldwide on July 31, 2019. The post carried a photo of Aquino with his head bowed down and with the Malacañang seal behind him.

The text read: “Iiwang utang ni Aquino kay Duterte $77 billion katumbas ng P6.4 trilyong piso with interest. Paano makakaalpas sa kahirapan ang sambayanang Pilipino? (Aquino will leave P77 billion worth of debt to Duterte, which is equivalent to P6.4 trillion with interest. How can the Filipino people be freed from poverty?)”

Marquez shared the post from Facebook group Senator Manny Pacquiao Supporters Worldwide, which was posted on July 29, 2019. Rappler also found the same content posted by Facebook page Imee Marcos Supporters on October 24, 2018.

As of writing, the combined Facebook engagement of these posts had reached over 3,655 shares, 1,200 reactions, and 603 comments.

Rating: MISLEADING

The facts: When Aquino left office in June 2016, the country’s national debt amounted to P5.9 trillion (P6.511 trillion with guaranteed debt) based on data from the Bureau of Treasury. But not all of these loans were incurred under the Aquino administration as the Facebook post suggests.

In a similar fact check article, economist JC Punongbayan explained that a government’s outstanding debt is a “running total” of how much the country still owes since new debt is incurred as old debt gets paid at any point in time. (READ: FALSE: Pie chart of Philippines' national debt under 3 presidents)

The best way to determine the total debt an administration incurred is to compute the net addition to the outstanding amount during its term, since the government also makes regular debt payments.

In this case, the net addition to the national debt under the Aquino administration only amounted to P1.37 trillion in 6 years, since the outstanding debt stood at P4.6 trillion when he first came into office in June 2010. (READ: MISLEADING: Filipinos each owe P62,000 in debt 'because of PNoy')

Treasury data also shows that from July 2010 to June 2016, the national government paid a total of P3.6 trillion in debt service. – 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.

Claim: A supposed male overseas Filipino worker was allegedly raped and mutilated by 9 Saudi Arabians.

In its post released on Thursday, August 1, viralpro.net claimed in its blog post’s title that the male worker’s genitals were cut off after 9 Saudi Arabians raped him.

The title of the post read, “Lalaking OFW Ginahasa ng 9 na Arabo at Pinutulan pa ng Ari.”  (9 Arabs raped male OFW and mutilated his genitals after.)

A 48-second YouTube video clip was embedded in the post. It showed a GMA News report on the alleged gruesome fate of the male rape victim.   

The claim was spotted in a social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle. Facebook pages such as Paolo Pulong Duterte, WBP We Blog Ph, and Unofficial: PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa shared the post, which has accumulated over 800 total interactions combined. 

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The claim is a rape hoax that had circulated in the past. The GMA News video in the article was about a different man’s genital mutilation done by his wife after a marital fight in Pasay City in 2013. It did not mention any OFWs. (READ: CONVERSATION: The plight of #OFWomen)

The thumbnail used in the embedded video was also false. It was taken from a portion of a GMA News YouTube video posted on July 6, 2018. The image showed a photo of a Filipino worker who fell into a coma after being battered by an unidentified Arab youth in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Vera Files had also fact-checked the claim in September 2018.

This is the second time that Rappler fact-checked a claim from viralpro.net. In December 2018, it circulated a hoax that claimed the Miss Universe Organization banned mixed ethnicity Filipinos from joining the competition. – Glenda Marie Castro/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.

MANILA, Philippines – Virtually unknown before the Duterte administration, former National Youth Commission (NYC) chair Ronald Cardema sparked controversy over his attempts to stretch the law and gain a seat in the 18th Congress.

Criticized for failing to resign from his government post as NYC chair, filing for substitution as the first nominee for Duterte Youth on the eve of elections, and then found to have violated Philippine election laws – Cardema has not stopped in his bid to be a part of the House of Representatives.

Cardema's latest move saw him dead set on taking a seat in the Lower House as he appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc to reconsider his nomination. This, despite a decision from the Comelec 1st division to cancel it. 

The twists and turns of Duterte Youth have been widely criticized across the political spectrum but the group isn't done yet. The party's efforts to enter Congress also show how its actions have been executed at the last minute several times and repeatedly questioned by the poll body. 

How did it all start and where is it at now?

October 19, 2018

Duterte Youth's nominees file their certificates of nomination and acceptance (CONA). Among those listed as the party's nominees are the following: Ducielle Suarez Cardema, Joseph De Guzman, Benilda De Guzman, Arnaldo Villafranca, and Elizabeth Cardema.  

Duterte Youth is the second to the last party to file its CONA on the last day of filing of candidacies for the 2019 midterm elections, beating the 5 pm deadline on October 19, 2018. 

May 12, 2019

After little noise from the party, Duterte Youth's original nominees simultaneously withdraw their nominations on Sunday, May 12 – the eve of elections. At the same time, Duterte Youth chairman Ronald Cardema files for subsitution as the party's first nominee past office hours at 5:30 pm on Sunday.

Along with Cardema, others listed as Duterte Youth's substitute nominees include Gian Carlo Galang, Catherine Santos, Kerwin Pagaran, Sharah Shane Makabali, and Allan Kevin Payawal.

May 17, 2019

The news of Cardema's filing is brought to light by Kabataan representative Sarah Elago, who called out Cardema for his last minute filing for substitution. 

Questions regarding the propriety of the timing of Cardema's substitution are also raised, considering that nominees with government positions were deemed resigned after filing their certificates of candidacy in October 2018.

The Comelec initially says Cardema can no longer be considered a susbstitute nominee for Duterte Youth as he missed the deadline for filing petitions for substitutions. 

"We have published rules for that....The period for substitution has already lapsed,” Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez tells rerporters in a presscon on the sidelines of canvassing of votes for the May 2019 elections. 

May 18, 2019

The Comelec backtracks and clarifies that Duterte Youth's nominees, along with Cardema, actually met the deadline for filing petitions for substitutions. 

Comelec Director Francis Arabe says this is because unlike senatorial candidates who had only until November 2018 to file for substitution, party list nominees had up until before the closing of polls on election day to file petitions for substitution due to withdrawal.

May 19, 2019

Malacañang says Cardema effectively "abandoned" his post as NYC chair by seeking to become Duterte Youth's nominee in the party-list elections. 

As the Comelec was still deciding on how to act on Cardema's substitution bid, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo says regardless of the poll body's decision, Cardema is out of the NYC. 

"We deem that Mr Cardema has already abandoned his present position because his act of filing the petition absolutely reflects his intention to relinquish his office and exposes his desire to serve the government in a different capacity," Panelo says.

Malacañang directs Cardema to vacate his office and turn over all official papers, documents, and properties in his possession to the Office of the President. 

May 20, 2019

Election watchdogs and youth groups question Cardema's moves, saying he and Duterte Youth violated election laws and the poll body's own rules.

Election watchdog Kontra Daya, leaders from the National Union of Students of the Philippines, College Editors Guild of the Philippines, Youth Act Now Against Tyranny, Tindig-University of Santo Tomas, and the University of the Philippines Student Regent Ivy Taroma file the first petition against Cardema, asking the Comelec to junk the petition for withdrawal filed by Duterte Youth’s 5 original nominees.

The group argues Cardema does not meet the qualification needed to become a party-list nominee for the youth sector as he is overage. The Party-List Act mandates that representatives of the youth sector must be at least 25 years old, but not more than 30 years old on election day. Cardema is 34 years old.

Depsite no decision from the Comelec en banc on his susbtitution bid – and days before the winning party-lists in the 2019 elections are proclaimed – Cardema decides to declare himself on social media as an incoming congressman. 

May 21, 2019

Cardema's actions continue to spark criticism. His substitution bid is questioned by former NYC officials such as former youth commission chair Ice Seguerra and former NYC commissioner and actor Dingdong Dantes. 

"Nakakalungkot na bilang pangunahing representante ng kabataan ay lumalabas na nakikisali siya sa pag-abuso at pag-circumvent sa party-list system. Gusto man nating isipin na totoo ang kanyang hangarin, marami siyang dapat ipaliwanag," says Dantes.  

(It's unfortunate that as primary representative of the youth, it appears that he's among those abusing and circumventing the party-list system. While I would want to think that his intentions are pure, he has a lot to explain.)

May 22, 2019

Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon speaks out and raises questions about the qualifications of Cardema to serve as youth sector representative in Congress.

“In the certificate of candidacy form of Cardema, he stated that he is qualified. But is he not over 30 years old?” Guanzon says on Twitter. 

Guanzon then asks when Ducielle Suarez Cardema – Ronald Cardema's wife and the party-list first nominee whom he replaced – was born. She said: "For substitution to be valid, the one being substituted must be qualified in the first place."

On Suarez Cardema's certificate of nomination and acceptance, she lists her birthday as September 20, 1990, making her 28 years old at the time of filing.

Meanwhile, another petition is filed against Cardema. 

Election lawyers Emilio Marañon III and Ernelson Trojillo, along with youth group Millennials PH, ask the poll body to deny the withdrawal of Duterte Youth's 5 original nominees and reject the last-minute substitution bid filed by Cardema. 

Later, the Comelec en banc, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, proclaims the winning party lists in the 2019 elections. Among them is Duterte Youth, which gained enough votes to take one seat in Congress.

Despite the proclamation of winners, the Comelec does not release a decision on Cardema's substitution bid. 

May 24, 2019

Nearly two weeks after filing for substitution, several petitions against Cardema are filed at the Comelec. 

Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez says more than 10 petitions have been filed before the poll body as of Friday, May 24. 

June 4, 2019

The Comelec en banc decides to give due course to Cardema's substitution bid. 

"The substitution bid of Ronald Cardema as Duterte Youth nominee has been approved, with one Commissioner dissenting and one abstention," says Jimenez. 

In a resolution, the Comelec en banc adopts the recommendation of the poll body’s law department to accept the withdrawal and give due course to the substitution of all nominees of Duterte Youth party. 

Guanzon dissents, saying Cardema's bid is an "unabashed mockery and assault to our democratic processes." She adds that Cardema cannot sit in Congress until issues on his qualification are resolved. 

Meanwhile, Comelec Commissioner Luie Guia abstains from the ruling, giving due course to Cardema's nomination. Guia says he abstained "to be consistent with my earlier vote to deny the accreditation" of Duterte Youth.

June 6, 2019

In his dissenting opinion dated January 28 and given to media June 6, Guia says Duterte Youth was late in submitting the required documents in its motion for reconsideration, and that its excuse of "unintentional oversight" was not enough. 

Cardema's party had apparently appealed before the 7-member en banc, an earlier decision of the Comelec 2nd Division denying Duterte Youth's accreditation. The en banc overturned the 2nd Division's ruling and allowed Duterte Youth to join the party-list elections.

June 10, 2019

Former NYC officials join calls urging the Comelec to junk Cardema's congressional bid.

In a letter released to media on Monday, June 10, former NYC chairpersons Ice Seguerra, Gio Tingson, and Leon Flores III, along with former commissioners Dantes, Perci Cendana, JP Peñol, and Erwin Andaya argue that Cardema and other nominees of the party failed to meet the requirements needed to represent the youth sector in Congress.

The former NYC officials warn that if Cardema and other nominees' qualifications are overlooked, the youth would lose "genuine representation" in Congress. 

June 11, 2019

A week after deciding to give Cardema's substituion due course, the Comelec holds a hearing on Cardema's qualifications to serve as 18th Congress representative. 

Found to breach the age limit during the hearing, Cardema changes his tune and says that he now represents professionals instead of the youth sector. 

Marañon says Cardema's nomination should be canceled due to the misrepresentation. 

June 17, 2019

Veteran election experts Romulo Macalintal and former poll chief Sixto Brillantes Jr back calls of groups urging the Comelec to junk Cardema's bid.

The two election experts file before the poll body on Monday, a manifestation seeking to deny due course or cancel Cardema's nomination as the party's first nominee and suspend or withhold his certificate of proclamation. They are joined by Marañon and youth group Millennials PH. 

June 19, 2019

The Comelec en banc decides to hold off on issuing a certificate of proclamation to the party due to pending cases questioning Cardema's qualifications.

August 5, 2019

Nearly a month after deciding to give Cardema's subsitution due course, the Comelec 1st Division decides to cancel the Duterte Youth chairman's nomination as first nominee of the party.

The poll body division votes 2-0 in favor of petitons against Cardema, which argued he did not meet the qualifications to serve as representative of the youth sector in Congress. The third member of the division was away.

In a separate concurring opinion, Guanzon says Cardema's last-minute nomination showed a "clear attempt" to circumvent election laws and the poll body's rules.

The feisty commissioner adds the "across-the-board withdrawal" of all 5 original nominees of Duterte Youth along with the subsequent nomination of Cardema on the eve of elections "speak resoundingly of a clear attempt, not just to circumvent the law and the rules but also to hide from the electorate Cardema's ineligibility as a nominee of Duterte Youth." 

While the decision is a setback for Cardema, he can still appeal the 1st Division's ruling with the Comelec en banc. 

August 6, 2019 

The rest of Duterte Youth's substitute nominees withdraw their nominations while the party files another set of susbtitute nominees for the second time.

Depsite the cancellation of his nomination, Cardema is listed as the part's first nominee again. He is followed by his wife, Ducielle Suarez Cardema, who files for nomination once more despite withdrawing her bid earlier in May. Suarez is listed as second nominee. 

Along with the Cardemas, Guillermo Villareal Jr, Krizza Reyes, and Robert Garcia also file for substitution with the Comelec on Tuesday, August 6. 

August 7, 2019

Guanzon announces she has filed a memorandum with the poll body's law department to probe into whether or not Cardema committed material misrepresentation in filing his nomination.

If the law department finds grounds that Cardema committed material misrepresentation in his CONA, Guanzon says a criminal case would be filed against him for violating the Omnibus Election Code.

August 12, 2019

Brillantes, Marañon, and Millennials PH file a petition before the Comelec opposing Duterte Youth's second withdrawal and substitution of nominees.

The group urges the poll body to deny due course to Duterte Youth's withdrawal and filing of substitution for new nominees. 

“This...wave of ‘merry-go-round’ nominees of Duterte Youth is not just a clear violation of Republic Act No. 7941 and applicable jurisprudence, but a blatant insult to the intelligence of this Commission and of the whole nation, thus, should not be allowed at all costs,” they said. 

August 13, 2019

Guanzon says the poll body has yet to act on Duterte Youth's second filing of new substitute nominees, following the cancellation of Cardema's nomination. 

Meanwhile, Cardema files a motion for reconsideration asking the Comelec en banc to reconsider the cancellation of his nomination as Duterte Youth's first nominee.

Cardema argues he meets qualifications to sit as a representative in Congress and says the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, not the Comelec, should decide on his case. – Rappler.com

Claim: Facebook page Pinoy Republic shared a video of Senator Leila de Lima “admitting” that she’s a protector of drug lords in the New Bilibid Prison.

The video lasted for 1 minute and 28 seconds. It was posted on August 8, 2016, and had over 2.8 million views as of writing. It also garnered over 88,000 shares, 10,000 reactions, and 5,000 comments.

The video showed De Lima saying the following statements:

• The truth is I was protector of Bilibid drug lords.
• I myself started drugs in the National Bilibid prison.
• I myself continued operations in the National Bilibid prison of drugs.
• Together with this is a confirmation that there is shabu laboratory inside the national penitentiary. Yes, Mr President, there is shabu laboratory inside the Bilibid prison, even in the tunnels under it.
• Those who will search the tunnels will get a whiff to the smell of cooking methamphetamine.
• Sa termino ko lang po bilang justice secretary nag-umpisa ang mararangyang kubol ng drug lords sa building 14, hiwalay sa mga ordinaryong preso (It was only during my term as justice secretary when drug lords started having luxurious tents in building 14, separate from ordinary prisoners).
• I am a drug lord coddler. I am against the war on drugs because I am protecting the drug trade.
• I will surrender my mandate as a senator of the Republic.

The video is being circulated again on Facebook despite being posted 3 years ago. It was flagged by Claim Check, Facebook's tool that identifies dubious posts for fact-checking.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The video posted by Pinoy Republic is an edited version of De Lima’s privilege speech on extrajudicial killings at the Senate on August 2, 2016. Her whole speech lasted for 38 minutes and 46 seconds.

The video posted by Pinoy Republic omitted key parts of De Lima’s speech and arranged it in such a way that it presents a whole new narrative.

In her privilege speech, De Lima criticized the rise of extrajudicial killings under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration that resulted from his bloody war on drugs. 

At the same time, the senator also praised the President for his “determination” in eradicating the drug problem in the country. She said that she also spearheaded the operations to clean up the New Bilibid Prison of drugs. (READ: Bilibid probe: Why did drugs proliferate behind bars?)

Rappler compared Pinoy Republic’s video to the original footage of De Lima’s speech. The text in bold are the parts of the original video that were deliberately cut out:

De Lima also denied the claim in a statement sent to the press on Saturday, August 17. She said: "Hindi po ako drug lord. Hindi po ako protektor ng drug lord (I am not a drug lord. I am not a protector of drug lords). No fake news or perjured testimonies can ever obliterate the truth about my innocence."

On February 24, 2017, De Lima was arrested over drug charges filed against her by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

After more than two years of being detained, she was granted a two-day furlough from August 14 to August 16 to visit her ailing mother in Iriga City. – 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.

Businessman Wilfredo Keng's legal team is growing in his cyber libel case against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos Jr.

Lawyers Magilyn Loja and Carlos Villaruz from the prominent Esguerra and Blanco law firm entered their appearance for Keng during a hearing on Friday, August 16, at the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC).

Villaruz appeared as counsel for Senator Bong Revilla in his plunder case before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan, and Loja appeared as counsel for fugitive Peter Lim during the hearings at the Department of Justice (DOJ). 

With the addition of their firm, there are now 3 private prosecutors against Ressa and Santos, who are both represented by former Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG).

"They're more on advisory, so we can sure-up the case," said lead counsel Joseph Banguis. Banguis is also collaborating with co-lead counsel Ryan Cruz. (READ: A look into a libel trial: First witnesses up in Maria Ressa case)

PDEA clearances 

Keng's legal team presented on Friday two letters from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), one from 2016 and one from 2019, which certify that the businessman had no "derogatory record" in the agency.

The article in question, written by Santos, cited an intelligence report which quoted information by the National Security Council that Keng was supposedly involved in "human trafficking and drug smuggling." The article was about how former chief justice Renato Corona was using vehicles linked to businessmen, one of them Keng.

Florina Cureg, an information systems specialist from PDEA, testified on the authenticity of the letters. During cross examination, Te asked the witness the extent of intelligence in the PDEA database. The same database was used to issue the clearances for Keng.

"National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and PDEA's own intelligence," replied Cureg.

Banguis said their next witness would be lawyer Leonard de Vera, who used to represent Keng.

"(He will testify) on the steps that they took to request Rappler to take town down the article. He facilitated that," Banguis said.

The Keng team has withdrawn as witness former NBI cybercrime chief Manuel Antonio Eduarte. Eduarte was the one who initially dismissed Keng's complaint at his level, but flip-flopped to elevate the case to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

"Because whatever proceedings in the NBI, it's no longer relevant because it reached the DOJ and the DOJ already found probable cause," Banguis said in Filipino.

Banguis had earlier said they did not intend to call Ressa and Santos to the stand, but they did list as among their 7 witnesses two Rappler journalists – editor-at-large Marites Vitug and former researcher-writer Katerina Francisco.

Banguis said the Rappler journalists will be examined on the issue of Keng's prior requests to take down the article.

The next hearing is on August 27. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Instagram users can now report suspicious and possibly false posts spread all over the platform. But for now, only US-based fact checkers will be verifying the flagged posts.

On August 15, Facebook announced that it was expanding its third-party fact checking program to Instagram, the photo and video-sharing social networking service it acquired in 2012. The ratings will be the same as those of Facebook’s – these are: true, false, or misleading/mixed.

The technical rollout was launched in the US first and should be available to international users by the end of the month, says the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). The IFCN is Poynter Institute’s unit that brings together fact-checkers and has 71 signatories all over the world, including Rappler.

To report hoaxes or posts that carry false or misleading information, Instagram users only have to tap the three dots at the upper right of the photo or video, select “It’s inappropriate” and then tap “False information.”

However, Instagram will not take down posts from its platform even if proven false by fact checkers. Instead, they will be downplayed on the “explore” and “hashtag” pages. The users who post the reported contents will also not be notified, unlike in Facebook.

“In Facebook, posts become popular by shares. On Instagram, people use multiple hashtags to promote their pieces of content and have them showing up on many different pages. This is where we will be working on,” Poynter quoted Instagram spokesperson Stephanie Otway.

As well, Instagram doesn't plan to offer a training workshop focused on their platform. The IFCN said Instagram’s goal in this program is to train its artificial intelligence to become better at spotting false information in the future, instead of having to rely on humans.

There was no information yet about the role of fact-checkers outside of US in this program. In the Philippines, Rappler and Vera Files are the only verified signatories to the IFCN Code of Principles. (READ: Rappler now a member of the International Fact-Checking Network) – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte has an overwhelming winning streak in the Supreme Court, with his top lawyer Solicitor General Jose Calida boasting of a 'Win, Win, Win' campaign in his task to defend the administration.

As the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) prepares for more gruelling rounds of screening and vetting for 3 vacancies in the Supreme Court, including the chief justice post, let's track the votes of all justices in the Duterte presidency and who among them had handed the president his victories.

We list 6 major cases, 3 of them directly impacted Duterte policies, while 3 of them involved cases of 3 government officials that were of interest to the president.

We also explain the nuances of the votes of some of justices, some of whom are automatically nominated to become the Philippines' next chief justice.

The automatically nominated justices for top magistrate are: Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Marvic Leonen and Benjamin Caguioa. Their deadline to accept their nominations is on August 20.

READ:

By 2022, Supreme Court filled with Duterte appointees

Duterte starts to pack Supreme Court with young appointees

First among equals: How influential is a chief justice on the Court?

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Hero's burial for Ferdinand Marcos 

This case set off Calida and Duterte's winning streak in the High Court. Leading the respondents in this case was Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana who ordered the military to bury the late dictator at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani, compliant to Duterte's verbal promise to the Marcoses.

The 9-5 decision care of a Peralta ponencia was the first in many decisions that upheld the potent power of presidential discretion. Among other reasons, the Supreme Court decision said that Duterte has the power to decide on the use of land within the public domain.

Although 3 justices retired when the Supreme Court had to decide on motions for reconsideration, the vote became 10-5, because Duterte's 3 new appointees – retired justices Samuel Martires and Noel Tijam and Associate Justice Andres Reyes Jr – all sided with the majority.

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Acquittal of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for plunder

Duterte had no direct participation in this case, although 3 years later, Arroyo thanked the president for "providing the atmosphere in which the Court had the freedom to acquit me." Former ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, herself a retired Supreme Court justice, slammed this decision as being "nipped in the bud."

The vote was 11-4 courtesy of a Bersamin ponencia that introduced a main plunderer doctrine that has so far helped Jinggoy Estrada get bail in his plunder case, and aided the likes of Janet Lim Napoles in her own plunder cases. (READ: Courtesy of Supreme Court: Everyone in PCSO intel fund scam now cleared)

A nuance in one of the concurring votes was Bernabe's. Justice Bernabe concurred with the result but dissented to the main plunderer doctrine. (READ: The unpredictability of Supreme Court Justice Bernabe)

The final decision remained at 11-4 despite the retirement of some justices, because Martires and Tijam again sided with the majority.

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The arrest and continued detention of Leila de Lima

One of the close votes in the Supreme Court, the justices were split 9-6 in ruling that the arrest and detention of Senator Leila de Lima was valid. Carpio called this decision "one of the grossest injustices" in recent memory.

By this time, one more Duterte appointee had entered the Court – Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo, who voted with the majority. Calida led the oral arguments in defense of the trial court judge who ordered the arrest.

The dissenters pointed out violations on the rules of evidence, with Leonen saying it "may be a case of persecution rather than prosecution." The ponencia argued that specific evidence could just follow during trial. The ponente was Velasco, who is now Marinduque governor and whose son Lord Allan is the next House Speaker.

The final voting mostly remained the same, except that Sereno could not vote because she was already on leave at this time due to her impeachment trial.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

The constitutionality of Martial Law in Mindanao

The martial law decisions, all 4 of it, gave Duterte an unbridled power of discretion.

It began with a Del Castillo ponencia which empowered Duterte to put the entire country under martial law. 

Since 2017, the wins would be reinforced by new Duterte appointees. The 4th win was even written by junior justice Rosmari Carandang, who said in her ponencia that the Supreme Court “must not fall into or be tempted to substitute our own judgment to that of the People's President and the People's representatives."

Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza, who initially concurred in the first decision, eventually joined the dissenters. In his last martial law dissent, Jardeleza called the Carandang ponencia as “the Court’s deeming abdication of its duty.”

Bernabe's concurring votes are again nuanced. She agreed with the result, but disagreed that the president's discretion trumps all, including the Supreme Court's. Bernabe said: “Our deference to the President must be circumscribed within the bounds of truth and reason."

Take a look at the voting pattern in the 4 martial law wins:

There was one unanimous decision, however, on the issue of martial law. In this decision, the Supreme Court voted that Congress need not convene to confirm Duterte's martial law in Mindanao. In this decision, Sereno and Carpio voted with the majority in saying that Congress needs to convene only if it wants to revoke the proclamation.

Leonen and Caguioa concurred because the issue had become moot, but dissented to the doctrine. Leonen, as joined by Caguioa, said that Congress must convene immediately after a president proclaims martial law "to jointly consider the reasons, scope, and proposed authorities to be exercised."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ouster of Maria Lourdes Sereno via quo warranto

In a historic decision, the Supreme Court voted 8-6 to remove a chief justice in a mode other than the constitutionally-required impeachment.

A surprise dissenter in that vote was Velasco. But his dissent came with a nuance too. Velasco voted to dismiss the quo warranto petition, but agreed in a separate vote, that it was the proper remedy, except that it was premature. (READ: EXPLAINER: How SC majority tried to close all doors for ousted Sereno)

Other dissents had nuances too. Carpio, for example, was clear in his vote that quo warranto is an unconstitutional way to remove a chief justice. But in a separate voting on whether or not Sereno violated the Constitution and the law for failure to file Statements of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth, the vote became 9-0, with Carpio joining the majority and the other 5 not offering an opinion.

The voting did not change when the decision became final.

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Duterte's closure of Boracay is constitutional

This is Duterte's most recent win, which dissenters called as the "realization of a tyrant."

Penned by Del Castillo, the 11-2 decision declared that the closure was a valid exercise of a police power.

Only Leonen and Caguioa dissented.

“This ponencia, which prioritizes swiftness of action over the rule of law, leads to the realization of the very evil against which the Constitution had been crafted to guard against –tyranny, in its most dangerous form,” said Caguioa in his strongly-worded dissenting opinion.

Caguioa also has this to say of his colleagues’ decision: “To say that we believe in our Constitution, and yet discard it so easily because of expediency, is to champion hypocrisy to the detriment of our national soul.”– Rappler.com