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Responding to hoax, Enrile son denies dropping out of senatorial race


Another hoax was treated as news by friends of friends of friends on Facebook. A fake report on a “satirical and fictional” news website that Cagayan Rep. Juan “Jack” Ponce Enrile Jr. has dropped out of the 2013 senatorial race spread like wildfire on the Internet Thursday, prompting the lawmaker to issue a denial. “I wish to inform everybody that I have not withdrawn nor contemplated the idea of withdrawing from the May 2013 senatorial race,” Enrile said in a statement. Enrile, who will be running under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) coalition, issued the denial after he learned that “some misguided minds have been poisoning social media through tweets and misleading news about my so-called withdrawal." Written in the wake of the sensational spat between his father, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Jack Enrile supposedly announced, according to the self-described satirical and fictional news website “So, What’s News?”: “Gustuhin ko man na makamit ng sambayanang Pilipino and murang pagkain, maraming pagkain (pause), mas nararapat siguro na umatras muna ako kesa masingil pa ako ng tatay ko sakaling maupo ako sa pwesto." "This is simply not true. I have no reason to withdraw when the race has not even started,” Enrile clarified in the statement to hordes of gullible social media users.   Enrile’s media officer, Richard Vargas, said the congressman’s camp had received several calls—one even from the UNA leadership—asking if the rumors spreading online were true.   “May nagsabi lang sa amin na may kumakalat ngang balita sa Twitter at sa blogs about it. When I checked, it apparently came from a satire blog. ‘Yung nakabasa nung naka-post na sa Twitter, inakala na it was a true report,” Vargas said in a phone interview. Enrile is the son of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. — Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK, GMA News

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