Four people, and not 11, have been killed in the explosion inside the main campus of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City (MSU-Marawi) on Sunday, December 3.
As of 12:57 p.m. Sunday, the Philippine National Police (PNP) confirmed that only four individuals were killed during the blast that happened at the Dimaporo Gymnasium at about 7 a.m.
The explosion occurred while a Catholic mass was ongoing at the gymnasium. At least 42 others were injured in the incident.
Among those that reported that 11 people were killed in the explosion were GMA News, Manila Times and even the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP).
GMA News has taken down its report on its Facebook page while its website has corrected the number of dead victims.
The LPP has also rectified its fatality count from 11 to four.
The Manila Times report titled “11 dead, scores hurt in MSU bombing” remained at its website. It has not corrected the figure as of 11:16 a.m. on Monday, December 4.
The wrong information that 11 persons were killed in the MSU-Marawi bombing were also posted in several Facebook pages or spread by users, including Bicol Express News, Forum Cagaranon, and Davao del Norte Forum – santo tomas 8112, among others.
The blast inside the MSU-Marawi campus on December 3 marked the first Sunday of Advent for Christians. It is also the fourth day of the Mindanao Week of Peace, an inter-religious annual event.
This is the first major terror attack in Marawi City after the 2017 siege that left a major part of the city in ruins, displaced thousands of residents and left 165 soldiers, 47 civilians and nearly a thousand members of the IS-inspired groups dead. The Marawi Siege was mounted by the combined forces of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups.
Various personalities, including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Mindanao’s lone Cardinal, Orlando Quevedo, OMI, condemned the deadly Marawi blast.
Marawi is the country’s only Islamic city and the capital of Lanao del Sur, which is part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The Regional Police Office – BARMM has created a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) to bring the culprits behind the bars of justice.
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MindaNews is a verified signatory to the Code of Principles of the International Fact-Checking Network. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
