MANILA: American lawyer Thomas Jones nevertheless remembers the scars of Philippine torture victims he interviewed for Amnesty International inside the country’s detention centres in 1975 during the rule recently dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
But Marcos, who presided over widespread abuses and corruption during his 20 years in power, denied the particular lawyer’s visit to the Philippines ever happened.
Decades later on the dictator’s declare – debunked by AFP and others — has resurfaced on social media sites well-liked by Filipinos.
Amnesty estimates thousands of individuals were killed and thousands tortured and locked up after Marcos enforced martial law upon Sep 21, 1972.
Under laws signed in 2013 by former president Benigno Aquino, eleven, 103 victims of torture, killings, enforced disappearances and other abuses have been officially recognized and compensated.
In the run-up in order to Wednesday’s 50th wedding anniversary of the start of martial law, pro-Marcos posts have inundated Facebook and TikTok with false plus misleading claims that will cast doubt on Amnesty’s findings plus downplay the violations.
AFP provides fact-checked multiple posts that carried video footage of Marcos addressing US media in 1982.
Marcos – father of current Philippine Chief executive Ferdinand Marcos Junior who has defended martial law – arrested Amnesty of relying on “hearsay” for their findings. And he falsely stated the rights group “never” visited the country.
The clip resurfaced on TikTok in March after an anti-Marcos United states senate candidate running in the particular May 9 polls cited Amnesty for figures showing the horrors of martial law.
“Amnesty International (said) 3, 257 were slain during Marcos’s period, 35, 000 had been tortured… 70, 1000 were imprisoned. May matter of record, ” Luke Espiritu said in an argument.
Within hrs of that livestreamed event, the Marcos footage had been stitched with the Espiritu video plus circulated on TikTok and Facebook.
It received over 900, 000 sights, according to analysis simply by AFP’s Fact Verify team.
A single post drew a lot more than 3, 000 remarks that questioned Amnesty’s numbers and described the dictator as “a great innovator destroyed by black propaganda”.