The Davao City Government denied claims by two Facebook accounts that the city bought oil from Brunei.
Two viral Facebook posts made this claim, which was widely circulated among Duterte supporters, fanning their narrative of the family’s leadership to address the oil crisis brought by the US-Israel vs Iran War.
Historya Channel, a page claiming to post current events and history, made this announcement on March 21. This post cited a quote allegedly from a PDP-Laban official, the party where former President Rodrigo Duterte is affiliated.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/189AxDooTb
The post also attributed this information from a viral video clip that showed a shipment allegedly coming from Brunei.
A 15-second video clip was posted by a content creator named Drai Vher on March 20, which showed oil tanker trucks alighting from a ferry. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1HVai718aB/
Historya Channel’s post garnered around 17,000 shares while Drai Vher’s video clip was shared more than 14,000 times.
The City Government of Davao denied the claims of these Facebook pages that it has purchased oil from Brunei.
“We have no information regarding the alleged oil supply from Brunei arriving in Davao City. The city government has not held any discussions with Brunei on this matter,” Davao City Information Officer Harvey James Lanticse told reporters on Saturday.
After Lanticse’s announcement, pro-Duterte influencers including Kitty Duterte, Kiko Barzaga Fans and John Fortich, who earlier shared the announcement, deleted their posts, .
Historya Channel posted Lanticse’s statement on its page on March 22 but did not remove its erroneous post about importing Brunei oil.
Davao civil society leaders and some netizens posted their comments on those two pages, calling them out for spreading disinformation.
The Philippines and other Asian countries are heavily dependent on imported oil from West Asia for transportation and energy generation, which is now affected in the war that has stretched for three weeks. Industry and economic analysts worry of an oil shortage that will result to spiraling costs of goods and services.(davaotoday.com)
