There is lunacy on social media. Posts rely on the popularity of numbers by the thousands and hundreds of thousands. Likes and shares for fake news, however, will never upend what is false as truth. But Duterte Diehard Supporters take it as truth. Time to retire Goebbels.
Something went viral this week that unmasked the ocean of difference between a DDS vlogger and a member of the Dutch media.
From all indications, the Dutch reporter sounded like a journalist who did his research homework. Insisting otherwise was the DDS vlogger, a Filipino migrant in the Netherlands, who posted with much passion but bereft of verifiable data even if he attempted to sound scientific.
Pinoy DDS vlogger: (approached by a Dutch media team) What is it for?
Dutch media: We are Dutch media.
PDV: Ok what are the questions?
DM: We were wondering why you are here today?
PDV: So basically, we want, we organized this because we wanted to ah support our, um show support to our former president, in full confirmity (sic) ah to show love with it for him and not to demonstrate actually against for what’s happening, because the legal aspect of this is going to be taken care of the lawyers of the former president. Ah in as far as we are concern (sic), yeah we are not able to secure a permit, so basically we are not allowed to do this. So we need to leave 10:30. But basically in the spirit of ah our love and support we are here.
DM: Why do you support Duterte?
PDV: Why not?
DM: Because he killed tens of thousands of people.
PDV: And your basis is?
DM: His own government claims, like his own government acknowledged that they executed many people.
PDV: Which? Are you sure because the last time I checked it was only 7,000.
DM: Actually 17 months into office the government stated that they killed over 20,000 people.
PDV: They, they allegedly killed 20,000.
DM: That’s what they said themselves?
PDV: No it was from actually a government entity.
DM: So that’s…he was in government but the government entity…
PDV: Sorry sorry sorry not a government but a media entity it’s called Rappler.
DM: It was the public office…
PDV: It was Rappler I’m very sure about that. Yeah I’m very sure because ah the government’s record shows that it’s only 7,000 across three years of his…
DM: So your counterclaim is that it’s not that bad because it was only 7,000?
PDV: It’s not the count…You can show…You need to check the facts, the facts.
DM: The Office of the President stated themselves that in the first 17 months more than 20,000 people have died.
PDV: From? From which media outlet?
DM: That’s the government, communicated themselves.
PDV: Which government?
DM: I just told you.
PDV: No, which government? There’s a sector. Is it the Department of Justice? Is it the police records? Is it the data . . .?
DM: It’s the Office of the President.
PDV: Ah no that’s not true. I, I’m sorry but I’d like to disagree. The facts are not correct.
How we can wish that Filipino media could also ask hard questions like that Dutch media reporter. He certainly had his hands on the correct data.
This was the reference he had used: the “President’s 2017 Key Accomplishment Report” that the Office of the President released in December of 2017. The presentation of the Duterte government on page 22 of that report was the smoking gun:
Under the entry “Fighting Illegal Drugs”: 3,967 drug personalities died in anti-drug operations from July 1, 2016 to November 27, 2017.
Homicide Cases Under Investigation: 16,355.
Do the math and the sum is 20,322. That was as of December 2017 only. The Dutch reporter was a perfect bloodhound.
The Rappler Research Report that the DDS vlogger tried to allude to as the source of fake numbers came out in March 2017. It was a summary assessment from multiple sources in government. But here’s the bad news to that DDS vlogger: Rappler never said the number was 20,000. He was conjecturing from thin air.
In September 2016, Rappler published its 84th update on the death toll numbers based on police reports given to media. It was also comparing data coming from human rights groups that had contact with people on the ground. In other words, verification was active.
Verification had to be necessarily active because as the years progressed, the Duterte government would change jargon in a bid to hide data — from HCUI (homicide cases under investigation) to DUI (deaths under investigation). It actually segregated these from the official police numbers as a technique of underreporting.
This was the subject of a Rappler article I had written on January 8, 2024. Despite the changing terminologies appended to “under investigation,” police already had the motives that “these deaths were attributed to robbery, theft, or personal grudges, yet did not give out a breakdown. If they were still investigating, how did they come up with the motives?” Touché.
Bato dela Rosa also attempted with his own storyline: that “some of the deaths were caused by guns-for-hire taking advantage of the anti-illegal drug campaign.” If they knew the motives, why would these be lumped as “deaths under investigation”?
The Office of the President said in December 2017 — only a year-and-a-half since Duterte assumed office (“17 months into office,” said the Dutch reporter; he was on point because the report ended November 2017) — that there were 20,000+ killed. That would obviously and reasonably be a conservative number by the time Duterte left office in June 2022.
And again, if you do the simple math, in 2018 the sum of 27,000 can be reached from adding the official police numbers with the DUIs. The usual quote of 30,000 would appear to be puny. There could have actually been from 50,000 to 60,000 killed.
The number of EJK deaths under the Duterte drug war is not a numbers game subject solely to likes and shares on social media.
I shall not dignify the vlogger by revealing his personal name. Readers, however, can see what I am talking about and his sheer audacity at lying, by searching for that reel on his Facebook page link.
It appears to be a monetized page. Facebook should take down this page for peddling fake news. – Rappler.com