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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Crime & justice fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about crime & justice. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

6,854 published reviews in this topic

NewtralCrime & justice

Va llevar a Rodrigo Rato a la cárcel por 90.000 euros

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim came from Esperanza Aguirre’s comments in an interview on Telemadrid. She said the sentence might send Rodrigo Rato to prison “por 90.000 euros,” referring to what she said he had spent on his opaque bank card. The review says that this misstates both the amount and the basis of his conviction. According to the review’s account of the Supreme Court ruling on the Caja Madrid and Bankia “black” cards, Rato was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for continued misappropriation. His card spending was 99,054.59 euros—not 90,000 euros. The review also says the judges attributed greater responsibility to Rato because he led the institution and maintained and expanded the irregular card-spending system. Thus, the review’s explanation is not simply that the quoted amount was imprecise: it says Rato was not convicted on the basis Aguirre described, and that the actual amount was different. It cites the Supreme Court judgment on the cards as its source.

RapplerCrime & justice

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Wednesday, August 22, announced in a press briefing that Naga City is the top 5 city in terms of crime volume.

Publisher’s rating: Asked for the data that PNP chief Albayalde cited, the PNP spokesperson Senior Superintendent Benigno Durana supplied Rappler with the data on murder, homicide, rape, robbery, and theft. Upon examination, the PNP's data on cities turned out to be unsorted. They were not arranged based on crime volume but by region. Naga City is in Bicol or Region 5. This is why Albayalde read as supposed top 4 the cities of regions southward from Cagayan Valley: Santiago is in Region 2, Angeles and Zambales are in Region 3, and Puerto Princesa is in Region 4-B.

RapplerCrime & justice

Sadly, I have yet to hear really howls of protest from the human rights advocates and church leaders against drug-lordism, drug dealing and drug pushing as forceful and vociferous as the ones directed against the alleged errant [law] enforcers in the fight against this social scourge... Your concern is human rights, mine is human lives. The lives of our youth are being wasted and families are destroyed, and all because of the chemicals called shabu, cocaine, cannabis, and heroine.

Publisher’s rating: Various rights groups, including the Commission on Human Rights, aren't dismissing the problem of illegal drugs in the Philippines. What they outright condemn is the bloody drug war which has led to the death of at least 4,540 drug suspects in anti-drug operations. CHR Chairperson Chito Gascon said: “These calls and other public protestations are not meant to stop government from doing its job to serve and protect the people but rather are appeals for our public authorities to always adhere to law and the highest standards of professionals." Caloocan Bishop Virgilio Pablo David, meanwhile, said Duterte's statement "implies that the victims of drug-related killings are not human lives! Is not the right to life the most basic human right?"

RapplerCrime & justice

Our re-energized relations with China has also led to an unprecedented level of cooperation between our nations on the war against transnational crimes. Our shared intelligence led to the discovery and dismantling of the clandestine shabu laboratories and the arrest of Chinese chemists [connected] with the Dragon organization called Wu Syndicate.

Publisher’s rating: During his state visit to Beijing last October 2016, President Duterte signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the cooperation between the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Office of the Narcotics Control of the Ministry of Public Security of China. The MOU states that both parties “agree to enhance exchange of intelligence, know-how and technology-sharing on fighting against drug crimes, preventive education and rehabilitation facilities.” In April, joint elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) nabbed members of the notorious Dragon Wu International Drug syndicates in Malabon, Marikina, and Batangas. The syndicate had set up shabu laboratories in these areas, equipped with various laboratory equipment and manned by chemists. According to PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino, the raids marked the first time in Philippine history “that a clandestine ecstasy laboratory was closed down.”