Online news site Rappler encouraged President Rodrigo Duterte to look at his own backyard after the Chief Executive called the virtual media outfit a “fake news outlet.”
“The President knows who produces fake news in the Philippines, and it certainly is not Rappler. He doesn’t have to look far from where he sits in Malacañang,” Rappler said in a statement.
In a media interview on Tuesday, Duterte slammed Rappler for purportedly peddling fake news, citing its report on Special Assistant to the President Secretary Christopher “Bong” Go over his alleged interference in the Philippine Navy’s selection of the weapons system supplier.
“For your information, you can stop your suspicious mind from roaming somewhere else. But since you are a fake news outlet then I am not surprised that your articles are also fake,” the President told reporters.
READ: Duterte: Prove Go meddled in Navy warship equipment deal and I’ll fire him
Duterte defended Go, saying the report was “pregnant with falsity.”
Go has also denied the media report, which was first published in the Inquirer, on his alleged meddling in the acquisition of Navy weapons system.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana also denied the news report on Go.
“Never nakialam si Bong sa frigate project,” he said in a text message sent to reporters. /kga