DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 25 March) — The vessel used to supposedly transport oil and gas from Brunei would not have made it to Davao’s ports, according to evidence MindaNews gathered online.
This fact check comes in the wake of claims that a supposed “friendship” between Brunei and Davao City allegedly allowed the Sultanate to send truckloads of oil to Davao.
The claims are FALSE.
Over the weekend, several posts went viral about a supposed delivery of petroleum products from Brunei headed to Davao City.
The viral claim aimed to portray the Dutertes as benevolent and forward-looking, with a supposed friendship between former President Rodrigo and the Sultanate, as well as the supposed leadership of Davao Mayor Sebastian Duterte, to thank for.
MindaNews fact-checked this as there is no proof that this can be done. This is not allowed by maritime law, as the vessels may only ply routes identified by the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA).
The ship in the viral photo is not designed to transport petroleum. Also, oil is shipped between countries using tanker ships, not truckloads of oil on board a ship.
The ship is owned by Starhorse Shipping Lines, a marine transportation company based in Lucena, Quezon City. Starhorse ferries people and cargo between Lucena and nearby islands and coastal parts, including Marinduque, Romblon, Mindoro, Masbate, Batangas, and parts of Quezon and Camarines Sur, according to the company’s website.
Vincent Dominic Reyes, identified as Chief Executive Officer of Starhorse Shipping Lines, has denied involvement in the alleged oil transport.
Based on its fleet sheet, Starhorse operates a sizable domestic ferry/RoRo fleet that includes multiple Virgen de Peñafrancia vessels—at least I, II, III, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII—plus other vessels such as Viva Sto. Domingo and Viva Marian Queen.
Using ChatGPT and corroborating using the uploaded links, we found that the company’s own fleet sheet shows these vessels in the same white-and-red/pink livery family.
The viral video of the deck is visually consistent with the MV Virgen de Peñafrancia vessels, although this initial scan does not identify the exact vessel name or International Maritime Organization (IMO) Number.
Using various tools, MindaNews triangulated the video and photos about the supposed petroleum transfer using various approaches.
Using a tool called InVid, which extracts keyframes or screenshots from any video, we were able to capture various angles of the delivery video uploaded by several users.
We noticed that the railings on the vessel were pink, which matched the claim of the Starhorse official that this was indeed their vessel.
The vessel is likely one among the following:
| Vessel | MarineTraffic shipid | IMO No. | MarineTraffic type | Official Starhorse PDF shows red/pink-style livery? |
| MV Virgen de Peñafrancia V | 5111191 | 9183659 | Passenger Ship (MarineTraffic) | Yes |
| MV Virgen de Peñafrancia VII | 5142317 | 9216327 | Ro-Ro/Passenger Ship (MarineTraffic) | Yes |
| MV Virgen de Peñafrancia VIII | 5850569 | 9880908 | Ro-Ro/Passenger Ship (MarineTraffic) | Yes |
| MV Virgen de Peñafrancia IX | 5106235 | 9380659 | Ro-Ro/Passenger Ship (MarineTraffic) | Yes |
| MV Virgen de Peñafrancia X | 5828704 | 8798512 | Ro-Ro/Passenger Ship (MarineTraffic) | Yes |
| MV Virgen de Peñafrancia XI | 6085745 | 9898591 | Ro-Ro/Passenger Ship (MarineTraffic) | Yes |
MindaNews listed the vehicles and matched it with a list of roll-on-roll-off (Roro) type ships from Starhorse’s fleet.
While we were not capable of identifying the exact ship, we were able to determine that the port was nowhere near Davao, nor Mindanao for that matter.
Using geo-location, by screenshotting a portion of the photo and triangulating with other information such as the port name and keywords related to Starhorse, we were able to confirm that the port is in the Dalahican Ferry Terminal in Lucena City, Quezon, as Reyes had posted on Facebook.
Several landmarks in the photo help corroborate this information, especially an arc that’s visible on the upper left side of the viral video.
On Google Street View, we were able to make a visual reference to this landmark.
Since Google Street View allows one to “walk” the streets, granted Google has this data, we were able to verify up close the landmark: It is apparently Gate 2 of the Dalahican Ferry Terminal.
On Saturday, March 21, the City Information Office (CIO) of Davao refuted the claim of a Facebook page named “Duterte Supporters” on alleged gasoline supply from Brunei, which was among the Facebook accounts that posted the unverified information.
As of Tuesday, March 24, at 8:05 P.M., one Facebook post by a page called Duterte Supporters reached over 26 thousand reactions, 8.5 thousand comments, and 620 shares.
“UPDATE!! DUMATING NA SA DAVAO CITY ANG GASOLINA GALING BRUNEI!!
The post has since been deleted, based on a check Tuesday night, March 24.
Several versions of the post remain on Facebook and other platforms, with followers of the pages even doing the correction, even if these are comments from Duterte supporters. (With reports from Razl EJ Teman / MindaNews)
