Here’s the Duterte story that you can’t find on the Straits Times website

So here’s the print version of the news report that is no longer accessible on The Straits Times website.

It claims that Rodrigo Duterte had said at a campaign sortie last week that “he will burn Singapore’s flag after the island state’s diplomatic mission in Manila said it will seek legal advice over a ‘misleading’ Facebook post.”

However, a GMA News report about the same event states that Duterte was referring to 1995 — when he did, in fact, burn the Singapore flag to protest against the country’s impending execution of Filipino domestic helper Flor Contemplacion.

The GMA News report did not say that Duterte threatened to burn the Singapore flag in 2016.

The topic is already trending on Hardware Zone, a popular forum site in Singapore and a sister company of Straits Times. 

A sensationalized post entitled “Incoming Pinoy president wants to burn Singapore flag as soon as possible!” has garnered alarming comments from users, from slightly bemused to hate messages.

“Let him do if he dares,” said user KenSF5. “It will literally means that the millions of Filipinos working in Singapore; their jobs/career will be hanging.”

There are an estimated 167,000 Filipinos working in Singapore.



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