MANILA – Families of drug war victims have become targets of disinformation. Human rights lawyer Maria Sol Taule said that this is a moment of desperation for certain Duterte supporters.

The fabricated photo posted by pro-Duterte vlogger Cathy Binag  showed an altered picture of two of the victims’ families flaunting expensive handbags at The Hague.

Taule called out the vlogger and urged the public to report her post and page for spreading hate and false information. The original photo was taken by One News and it did not show the expensive bags.

“Duterte supporters and their bot network are fabricating lies in their desperation to bury the truth being told by relatives of drug war victims. They cannot debunk the narratives of the victims, hence they resort to malicious disinformation tactics,” Taule said.

One News flagged the post, issuing an advisory that it is fake. The fabricated post reached more than 100,000 engagements, but as of this writing, the content is no longer available.

Photo from One News.

Photo from a Facebook post.

The victims of the recent disinformation were Llore Pasco and Sheerah Escudero, whose loved ones were killed during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-illegal drugs campaign, as well as Rubilyn Litao, national coordinator of Rise Up for Life and for Rights.

Pasco’s sons, Crisanto Antonio and Juan Karlos, were found dead in Arboretum, Quezon City. Crisanto was supposed to get his security license for his job on May 11, 2017. A day after, Pasco and her other children found out about the death of Crisanto and Juan in a television newscast.

Escudero’s brother Ephraim went missing on September 19, 2017. On the third day of his disappearance, his body was found in a province more than 100 kilometers from where they lived, with head covered in a packaging tape and his arms and feet tied.

Binag’s deliberate actions to fabricate and propagate lies may be subject to cyber-libel, said Movement Against Disinformation (MAD) Executive Director Grace Salonga.

Basic elements of the cyber-libel under the Cybercrime Prevention Act are harmful or defamatory statements, the material is posted online, the persons involved are identifiable, and it is done with malice.

“The image was altered, and the caption implied that the families were not genuine victims but people enjoying a luxury trip,” Salonga said in a message to Bulatlat, stressing that the post damages the reputation of the families.

Moreover, she said that since it was published on Facebook with clear identification of the people subject to fabrication, the edited image suggests “intent to mislead.”

“The testimonies of Nanay Llore, Sheerah and the other families of victims of the drug war are so powerful that the Duterte camp needed to spend a lot of money in vain attempts to discredit and destroy the reputation of the families,” Taule said.

She said that the three relied on the support of the people through donations to go to the Netherlands. Friends and colleagues like Taule provided the delegates with winter clothes to keep them warm and minimize expenses.

“They are able to go there through the kindness and support of those who believe in their fight for justice,” Taule said. “They are among the poor targeted by Duterte’s drug war.”

In the ongoing confirmation of charges hearing in the International Criminal Court (ICC), the victims’ lawyers emphasized that the common target of the “war on drugs” are those coming from lower socio-economic strata: the urban poor.

“The murdered tokhang victims were usually the breadwinners of their families, their death meant that their surviving family members were pushed toward further poverty,” said Gilbert Andres during the ICC hearing.

Prior to the send-off of the delegates to The Hague, ICC Assistant to Counsel Kristina Conti already expected that the attacks against the victims online and offline will intensify.

“We are still studying it but we are asking for everyone’s help to protect the victims. We also find it challenging but we have already identified their inauthentic behavior: same timing, same script, same accounts,” Conti said in the send-off press conference.

This is not the sole instance that the victims have been vilified and targeted by the vast pro-Duterte network. In *Bulatlat’*s own posts, narratives of the victims are often subject to hate speech in the comments section.

Since the newsroom does not tolerate such harm and further trauma for the victims, it has become a policy to limit those who can comment on the posts related to the ICC hearing of Duterte, especially the narratives of the victims.

“Be critical. Verify information. Go to reputable sources of information such as credible media outfits and human rights organizations,” Jojo Lacanilao, convenor of Duterte Panagutin Campaign Network, said.

He said that there are new posts circulating regarding ICC investigators receiving millions of dollars from politicians.

In particular, he is referring to the case of 18 former Marines who accused the ICC investigators of allegedly receiving $2 million from former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and former Congressman Zaldy Co.

“The Dutertes are trying to manufacture a conspiracy between the ICC and some politicians critical of the Dutertes. This fictitious narrative fits Nicholas Kaufman’s ridiculous claim that the ICC case is politically motivated,” Lacanilao said. (RTS, DAA)

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