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Multiple Facebook posts have shared what they claim is breaking news that the Philippine Commission on Elections has disqualified five political parties from the country’s midterm election. The claim is false; the poll body said it had not disqualified the parties; the political parties said they had not been disqualified. The misleading posts, which can be seen for example here and here , have been shared hundreds of times since they were uploaded on May 12. The misleading posts’ caption says: BREAKING NEWS: partylist groups of MAKABAYAN BLOC DISQUALIFIED BY COMELEC! COMELEC is a reference to the Commission on Elections, the state body which is overseeing the Philippines’ midterm elections on May 13. The misleading posts’ contain a red image box with white text which says: BREAKING NEWS. Comelec disqualifies Makabayan partylist proved to be supporters and financiers of CPP-NPA-DNF. The box then contains the logos of five parties: Anakpawis , Kabataan partylist group, ACT-TEACHERS , Bayan Muna and Gabriela . Below is a screenshot of the misleading post: Screenshot of Facebook post The five entities listed belong to the Makabayan bloc, a coalition of eight political parties. The Makabayan bloc left the majority coalition in the House of Representatives in 2017, ending its alliance with the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. CPP-NPA-NDF refers to Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army- National Democratic Front. The NPA is the armed wing of CPP, while the NDF is its legal front. A petition to disqualify the parties mentioned in the misleading posts was filed with Comelec on April 26. But Comelec spokesman, James Jimenez, told AFP that the parties had not been disqualified. FALSE, James Jimenez texted AFP on May 13, in response to the question: Did the Comelec disqualify the following partylist groups: Bayan Muna, Anak Pawis, ACT-TEACHERS, GABRIELA, KABATAAN? In order to legally disqualify a party from the election, Comelec has to publish a resolution on the disqualification in two national newspapers as they did in this previous case in March 2018. AFP checked five major nation newspapers, the Philippine Star, Manila Standard, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Times and the Manila Bulletin, and found that no disqualification resolutions had been published on May 11, 2019 -- the day the misleading claims first appeared online -- or on May 12, or May 13, 2019. When Comelec has previously disqualified partylist groups from midterm elections there have been multiple media reports on the move, for example here . No news reports have been published or broadcast by Philippine media about the purported disqualification of the five political parties. The parties mentioned in the misleading posts also all denied that they had been disqualified. Here is the statement from Anakpawis which says: The Duterte government is desperate to stop Makabayan Bloc from returning to Congress that’s why it spread black propaganda against Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Act Teachers, Gabriela and Kabataan party-list. Below is the denial from Bayan Muna, which says: Don’t believe the defamation. We’re not disqualified. Here is the statement from Gabriela, which says: Our fellowmen, don’t believe in the fake news that is being spread that Gabriela and other Makabayan Partylist groups has been disqualified. GABRIELA continues to fight --- going full blast for the women, children and country! Let democracy and truth win! Pls pass And here is the statement from the Kabataan partylist group, which says: #KabataanALERT : MAKABAYAN BLOC PARTYLISTS' DISQUALIFICATION--fake news, desperate attack of the Duterte regime The government is very keen in preventing the sure win of the progressive partylists, thus, schemes such as this. There are pressing social issues that need more attention compared to the fake news that the government and trolls are ready to feed for public consumption. It is alarming that instead of addressing this issue, the Duterte administration has only responded by sustaining its online and keyboard army. A statement from ACT-TEACHERS in response to the misleading posts says: The black propaganda that they’re spreading that ACT TEACHERS Party-List and other progressive partylist groups of the Makabayan have been disqualified is FAKE NEWS. Please share.
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