Misleading

Farmers from Sumilao, Bukidnon who launched a 40-day caravan to support presidential candidate Leni Robredo covered nearly 4,000 kilometers when they traveled roundabout provinces in Mindanao and Visayas before arriving in Manila. This is contrary to misleading posts that insist the farmers could have only traveled 1,399 kilometers based on Google Maps’ direct route from Sumilao to Manila.

The farmers’ stopovers from March 28 to April 29, which were gathered from their Facebook page “Lakad ng mga Pamilyang Magsasaka Laban sa Gutom at Kahirapan,” were plotted on Google Maps to get their total distance. It shows they traveled about 3,895 kilometers, reaching some locations by boat.

The farmers also never claimed to have walked the full 4,000 kilometers on foot. In a Facebook video on March 28, the first day of the caravan, a member of the farmer’s group said they would do a “walk-caravan.”

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FactRakers is a Philippines-based fact-checking initiative of journalism majors at the University of the Philippines-Diliman working under the supervision of Associate Professor Yvonne T. Chua of the University of the Philippines’ Journalism Department. Associate Professor Ma. Diosa Labiste, also of the Journalism Department, serves as editorial consultant.

The name of the initiative, coined from the words “fact” and “raker,” is inspired by the term “muckrakers,” first used in the early 1900s by American president Theodore Roosevelt to express his annoyance at progressive, reform-minded journalists at the time.

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