Mocha Uson, the perennially controversial, President Rodrigo Duterte-appointed government employee, said yesterday that an erroneous Facebook post that she recently made wasn’t fake news, it was just an “honest mistake.”
Last month, Uson reported that the Department of Health (DOH) gave personal protective equipment (PPE) to healthcare workers. But it turns out that the photo that she posted on her page wasn’t from the DOH– it was from the SM Foundation, which also donated protective gear to various hospitals in the country. Two people filed a complaint against Uson for propagating what they alleged was fake news, pushing the National Bureau of Investigation to summon the high-ranking officer of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
According to the complainants, Uson violated Republic Act 10175, or the Bayanihan (“Camaraderie”) to Heal as One Act of 2020, which prohibits individuals from spreading false information in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read: NBI investigates Mocha Uson for allegedly posting false info and photos on Facebook
“I’m here to explain, and my intention in what I did was to inform people that the government wasn’t abandoning our people. I wanted to share the good news that the government was providing PPEs for our frontliners, and I used that photo from The Philippine Star which is a respected mainstream media, broadsheet, and it turned out, they also used the wrong photo,” Uson told reporters in English and Filipino, referring to an article from the Philippine Star titled, “DOH: First batch of 1 million PPEs delivered”
“I made an error, it was an honest mistake,” Uson added.
The Philippine Star admitted that they used the wrong image in a previous version of their story, but according to reports, the newspaper replaced the erroneous photo five minutes later.
The publication ran a correction underneath their article and said that “an earlier version of the story showed a photo of healthcare workers of The Medical City in personal protective equipment. The PPEs shown in the photo were donated by SM Foundation.”
“[A] new photo showing a delivery of health supplies from the Department of Health was replaced to accompany the story,” the broadsheet added.
This isn’t the first time that Uson has been called out for misleading social media posts (to put it lightly). She once drew flak early this year for posting a netizen’s story who accused Vice President Leni Robredo of giving paltry donations to victims of the Taal Volcano eruption, an allegation which Robredo has denied but Uson has refused to apologize for.
Read: Despite warrantless arrest, Justice Dep’t OKs charges against ‘kill Duterte’ teacher
The former model and entertainer’s subpoena is part of NBI’s supposed crackdown on false COVID-19 related news.
NBI Cybercrime Division Chief Vic Lorenzo told reporters that Uson came with her lawyers to explain what happened in the erroneous Facebook post, but did not file and affidavit.
Lorenzo said that more than a verbal explanation, a legal affidavit needs to be submitted so that they can build the investigation.
“[Uson] just explained the sequence of the posts, that it was taken from a newspaper… [but] those pictures should have been supported by an affidavit to explain the sequence of events and nit just a verbal explanation so we can integrate it with the case folder. And then we can have it evaluated whether a violation was committed as it is,” he said.
The NBI Chief said that they’ve asked Uson to submit the affidavit and are expecting it by next week.
