‘Pro-Duterte NPA Rally’: Inaccurate, Misleading

Screengrab from CNN Philippines official Facebook account.

JEERS TO CNN Philippines’ Network News for its inaccurate tagging of a rally in support of peace talks as “pro-Duterte” and its participants as members of the New People’s Army (NPA).

On Tuesday, June 28, Network News aired a report on the rally of activists and militant groups in Davao City to support the resumption of the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). The anchor introduced the report with the spiel “In Davao, an unusual show of support from the New People’s Army and militant groups to the government, or at least — the incoming one.” The caption of the report read “New People’s Army Holds Pro-Duterte Rally.”

Participants of the rally, however, were not composed of members of the guerilla group but by different sectors such as farmers, women, and indigenous groups (“‘40,000’ peace talk supporters troop to Davao streets”). Unless Network News actually saw NPA rebels in the gathering, granting that it has a way of determining who were the rebels among them, the claim is specious at best, malicious at worst.

Also, the demonstration was held in support of the peace talks between the Duterte administration and the Left, and not in support of the Duterte administration itself. The rally also preceded a peace forum where the participants presented a 10-point Mindanao peace agenda on which they will ask the president to act upon his first 100 days (“Reds march in Davao to back peace talks”).

Twitter user @genenisperos and Facebook user Armando Catapia tagged CMFR regarding this report:

@cmfr The slant is misleading, insiduous and dangerous because those who joined the rally are not NPA. #EyeOnEthicspic.twitter.com/OlSPb2kgsy

— doc gene (@genenisperos) June 28, 2016