Bogus: Road construction via China-funded ‘Build Build Build’ program

AFP

MANILA, Philippines — A Facebook post showing a road construction purportedly via the Duterte administration’s China-funded “Build, Build, Build” program is a bogus.

This was fact-checked by Agence France Presse (AFP), which said Thursday that the photos shown in the Facebook post were from an INQUIRER.net report about a truck that sank in a Quezon City road last November 24.

The misleading social media post contains photos of a collapsed road and a truck that dipped into a road, accompanied by a caption that praises President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration’s infrastructure program.

“Ang galing talaga ng Build Build Build ni Tatay Digong (Duterte). Kaya naman bilib na bilib ang mga kaDDS (Diehard Duterte Supporters) ko sa Build Build Build. Iba nga naman kasi talaga pag gawang China,” the post reads.

(Father Digong’s Build Build Build program is truly amazing. That’s why my fellow DDS are so amazed with Build Build Build. It’s really amazing if it’s made by China.)

According to AFP, the Facebook post was shared by an anti-Duterte Facebook group with 14,055 followers.

Regina Samson, of the Quezon City government’s communication center, told AFP that the road was a local government project and not part of the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program.

“A box culvert under the pavement collapsed when a 22-wheeler truck loaded with sand passed over it on November 24, 2018. The box culvert was constructed by the Department of Public Works and Highways way back in the 1970s, and 10 meters of it collapsed,” Samson said.

Samson also explained that a “box culvert” project falls under the program of the local government while the “Build, Build, Build” program is for “major projects.”

Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo, chairwoman of the “Build, Build, Build” program, also confirmed to AFP that the road project in Quezon City was not part of the national government’s infrastructure program. /kga