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FACT CHECK: No, this is not a photo of Paolo Duterte taking his shirt off

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<p>A Facebook post shared hundreds of times claims that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s son bared his back to disprove allegations he has a tattoo that links him to a drug gang. </p><p>The claim is false; the photo contained in the post shows an ex-adviser to the president, not his son.</p><p>The photo, which appears in <a href="https://archive.fo/UmRYL">this</a> post published to Facebook on April 10, 2019, and shared more than 480 times since, shows a man lifting his shirt up and exposing his back to members of the press.</p><p>Translated to English, the post’s caption says: “Oh no Bikoooooyyyyy.... Pulong has shown his back. Their next theory will be that he has the tattoo removed that&#x27;s why it took some time before it was shown”.</p><p>Pulong is the nickname of Paolo Duterte, a politician who is the eldest son of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rodrigo-Duterte">Here</a> is the Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Rodrigo Duterte, which mentions his son, and <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/philippines-duterte-says-son-will-be-killed-if-involved-in-drugs-37173533.html">here</a> is an AFP article about the pair.</p><p>Below is a screenshot of the post:</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/04/16/20190416-bong-go-back.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption> </figcaption></figure></div><p>Paolo is the former vice-mayor of the southern city of Davao and a candidate for a seat in Congress in May 2019 midterm elections. <a href="https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1050893">Here</a> is an article from the state-run Philippine News Agency about his election bid.</p><p>“Bikoy” is an alias given by a man who appeared in a recent series of viral videos, saying he is a former member of a drug syndicate. <a href="https://vimeo.com/327865900">Here</a> is the first video dated April 1, 2019, in which he accuses Paolo ‘Pulong’ Duterte of receiving money from a drug syndicate.</p><p>In that video, “Bikoy” says Paolo has a dragon tattoo on his back which shows his links to drug gangs.</p><p>Paolo has denied the allegation and said in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pulongzduterte/posts/971575209707824?__tn__=-R">this</a> post on his official Facebook page that he would not show his back to disprove the claims. </p><p>The photo does not show Paolo Duterte as claimed; a reverse image search on Google found that it appeared in <a href="https://ph.news.yahoo.com/bong-bares-back-deny-alleged-121355015.html">this</a> report from local news organization UNTV, dated April 10, 2019, and headlined: “Bong Go bares his back to deny alleged link to drug syndicate”. </p><p>The image below compares screenshots of the misleading Facebook post (L) and the UNTV report (R), which is hosted by Yahoo Philippines:</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/04/16/20190416-bong-go-comparison.jpg?ext=.jpg"/></figure></div><p>“Bong Go” is a nickname for Christopher Go, a senatorial candidate who belongs to Duterte’s political party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban). <a href="https://www.facebook.com/partidoPDPLABAN/photos/a.681592558545149/2075399029164488/?type=3&amp;theater">Here</a> is a post featuring Go on the party’s official Facebook page.</p><p>Go showed his back to the press after “Bikoy” also accused him of having a back tattoo which supposedly shows his ties with drug syndicates in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QswXO57U0ss">this</a> video published to YouTube April 7, 2019.</p><p>Other local news organisations reported on Go removing his shirt on April 10, 2019, for example the ABS-CBN News Channel, or ANC, on their Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=317878145571608">here</a>.</p><p>The ANC post, embedded below, contains a video of the incident which can be viewed from two seconds into the clip:</p><div><script src="https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v2.5" async="" type="text/javascript"></script></div><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=317878145571608" data-width="auto"> </div><p>Embedded below is another video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMIxiswq1Eg">report</a> on Go showing his back, published to YouTube by government channel People’s Television (PTV).</p><p>Go can be seen lifting his shirt at the 1 minute mark:</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BMIxiswq1Eg?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>The claim is false; the photo contained in the post shows an ex-adviser to the president, not his son.</p>

The claim is false; the photo contained in the post shows an ex-adviser to the president, not his son.