11 Urban Legends Debunked

Aside from having the element of slight plausibility, urban legends so insidiously play on our inner fears as to be believable.

Take it from me; I’ve fallen for some doozies. To my utter embarrassment, our fastidious fact-checker at INQUIRER.net, Bharry Osioso, set me straight on 11 of them. God, how could I have been so naïve?

1) Leave it to some Filipino cops to make the perverse more fun. But while the Biñan PNP’s “Wheel of Torture” indeed has the “Manny Pacquiao” treatment, it doesn’t include the “Bong Revilla,” in which the suspect is forced to listen to an interrogator’s privilege speech, a clear violation of human rights. It’s also not true that if the suspect refuses to confess, the torturer throws in Latin phrases.

2) There’s no truth to the canard that Ramon Revilla Sr. wept during his son’s privilege speech because he thought when Bong said, “Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus” he was saying, “Asus, naubos.” And where would his 80 children get their support without the pork? That’s simply a malicious interpretation by Revilla haters.

3) Deniece Cornejo’s condominium is not a safe house of the PNP unit responsible for the “Wheel of Torture.” The Philippine National Police has officially denied any links to that facility.

4) Don’t believe that that Cedric Lee is producing–and was just rehearsing for–a remake of Bruce Lee’s “Fists of Fury.” A check on his investments disproves this.

5) Once and for all–after a check on birth certificates–Deniece does not, repeat, does not have a twin brother named Denephew. That’s just so wrong.

6) And there’s been a unfortunate misunderstanding: Vhong Navarro and Deniece didn’t have oral sex, just oral text, let’s get that straight, says our fact-checker.

7) It’s not true that Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile stabbed “close friend” and top aide Gigi Reyes in the back. He stabbed her very publicly in the front. Then he threw her under the bus.

8) There’s not a shred of evidence that instead of saying his pork barrel signature was forged Sen. Tito Sotto said, “My signature was plagiarized.” Completely unsubstantiated.

9) Sen. Miriam Santiago did say that with official pay and perks reaching up to P1.4 million, being a senator leads to higher earnings. But there’s no proposal to list the Senate on the Philippine Stock Exchange. None.

10) While Imelda Marcos, ex-Archbishop Oscar Cruz and Noli De Castro visited and the hospitally jailed Gloria Arroyo, they didn’t bear gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. That’s just unfounded, sacrilegious rumor.

11) Inspired by Pope Francis, the bishops vowed to fight political dynasties. That’s true. But it’s absolutely untrue that they reluctantly agreed to teach artificial contraception to powerful politicians to prevent them from spawning.

With the Philippine economy’s stellar growth rate the poor have become better off– my colleague, Osioso, is still checking on that legend.

We’re also checking on the report that advisers had to strongly prevail upon President Aquino to not change his name to Nhoynoy.