WebClick Tracer

FACT CHECK | Viral Davao Petron fuel-prices photo was taken in March, not April 2026

By  Fact Check

|  April 24, 2026 - 6:59 pm

DAVAO CITY – Several posts online claim that fuel prices are much lower in Davao City, with the lowest Petron Diesel Max costing 61.85 per liter despite a global oil crisis. 

The claim is FALSE as the photo was taken on March 9 when the country was just starting to feel the impact of the global oil crisis triggered by US-Israel’s attack on Iran on February 28.  

MindaNews fact-checked these claims as they mislead readers into believing gas is cheaper in Davao City.

One such post was posted on April 17, a Facebook post by Boss Ry. This was a red flag, since prices have been high for a month and no gasoline service station has been selling fuel below P65 in the past few weeks.

Featured Images template 3

MindaNews took a picture of one of the price boards in one of the Petron branches along MacArthur Highway last April 21 to monitor a mandated rollback. 

image 1
MindaNews photo by Gregorio Bueno

Even with a rollback that has diesel now costing less than P100, the Petron branch here shows a noticeably higher price compared to the claim in the post. 

Using Google’s Reverse Image Search, MindaNews was able to trace the ownership of the original photo to MJ Mondejar of SMNI.

The photo appears to be first posted in the SMNI Integrated News Facebook Page on March 9, at 9:59 a.m. 

image 38

The photo showed fuel prices for March 9.

The photo was likewise posted in SMNI’s Nightline News Facebook Page on the same day, one minute later.

image 37

To confirm that the photo was indeed taken in Davao City, we geolocated the photo by examining small details from the nearby structures and signages. 

With the text from the signages unreadable, we relied on a combination of old-school sleuthing and tech and used Google Maps to list down all Petron Stations in Davao City. 

image 40

We picked each station to determine which branch it was, and matching signages, as well as nearby architectural clues and were able to determine that this branch was the Durian Petron Service Station, along Diversion Road in Buhangin. 

image 41
image 34

As we confirmed that it was indeed Davao City, we further dug up how the post may have circulated as misinformation. 

Facebook Page Progressive Mindanao (with 86K followers as of Apr. 21), first reposted the content without attribution under its ‘Davao City News – 2026’ photo album on March 10, at 12:03 a.m.

image 36

The post did not gain too much attention. 

On April 10, 7 a.m., Facebook Page ‘Don Cath Abevas Jabagat’ posted the same content, as well as a copy paste of the caption from the SMNI posts and received 14 shares, one comment, and at least 13 reactions.

The Don Cath Abevas Jabagat page has at least 60k followers, as of April 21. 

image 39

We are not certain whether the ‘Don Cath Abevas Jabagat’ page was the first to randomly share this post organically, nor do we see a direct connection between the page and SMNI. 

On April 14, at 10:33 a.m., Facebook user Von Exodus, with 7.9k followers as of April 21, 2026, shared the photo with a summarized caption and the Mondejar photo cropped at the sides.

image 35

The post did not copy paste SMNI’s caption, but had a brief summary that made it appear fuel was cheaper in Davao City. 

image 31

The post received a lot of engagement, with at least 2.6k shares, 913 comments, and 8.6k reactions as of April 21. 

We could not independently verify whether the Von Exodus post was the original source of the post with the shorter caption, since Facebook no longer publicly displays shares (unless one is an administrator of the page). 

On April 17, Boss Ry’s post, copied from Von Exodus, appears to be one of the 2.6k sharers of the post, a month later from the date of the original photo. 

image 32

As with all our reports, MindaNews welcomes fact-check leads or suggestions from the public. (Yas D. Ocampo / MindaNews) 


About MindaNews Fact Check

MindaNews Fact Check seeks to fight misinformation and disinformation circulating on the internet, news platforms and communities that we serve.

What is MindaNews Fact Check?
Submit a Lead

Methodology

As a news media organization, we strictly adhere to accuracy, fairness, balance, independence, accountability and transparency not just in our fact-checking initiative but in all other aspects of our work at MindaNews. We fact-check a claim that is specifically claimed to be a fact and involved the public interest or the welfare of the people. We debunk false claims using official government records, journals or interviews with experts. We don’t fact check opinions.

How Do We Fact Check?


Correction Policy

Consistent with our trust for factual reporting, we will rectify any error that we have committed. If you spot a factual error, you may notify the MindaNews Editors.
Correction Process
Submit a Correction

About MindaNews

Mindanao Institute of Journalism​

MindaNews is the news service arm of the Mindanao Institute of Journalism (MinJourn). MindaNews was founded in 2001 by independent, professional Mindanawon journalists who left the country’s most widely-circulated Manila-based broadsheet to tell the stories of Mindanao from the lenses of Mindanawons.
Read More
Complaints Policy

About MindaNews Fact Check

MindaNews Fact Check seeks to fight misinformation and disinformation circulating on the internet, news platforms and communities that we serve.
 
What is MindaNews Fact Check?
MindaNews Fact Check tracks and debunks fake news, false claims and misleading statements of government officials, civil society leaders and netizens being spread on the internet, especially on social media sites. MindaNews values truth and accuracy in performing our journalistic work.
Why we fact-check?
Politicians, government officials and other public and private figures at times tend to bend facts to suit or advance their vested interests, or their principals, in effect misleading the public. The distorted facts spread easily with the popularity of the internet and the wide influence of social media.
 
As independent journalists, our primordial duty is to tell the truth and present facts to help the public discern issues and concerns impacting their lives.
How do we rate claims?

FAKE – if the claim is completely invented.

FALSE – if the claim contradicts, undermines or disputes truthful facts, actual events and official records (i.e. laws and scientific studies)

MISLEADING – if the claim is based on truth but maliciously twisted that gives a different impression to serve a group or individual’s vested interests.

ALTERED – pertains to images or videos that were manipulated to mislead the public.

MISSING CONTEXT – if the claim needs more clarification or contextualization to make it clearer.
 
Where do you post your results?
We post our fact-checked stories in mindanews.com, on Facebook and Twitter with links to the original piece. We have a dedicated fact check page, where all fact-checked stories can be found.
How did MindaNews Fact Check start?

Since its establishment in 2001, MindaNews has been living up to its vision of being the “leading provider of accurate, timely and comprehensive news and information on Mindanao and its peoples, serving economically, politically and culturally empowered communities” and its mission to “professionally and responsibly cover Mindanao events, peoples and issues to inform, educate, inspire and influence communities.”

MindaNews was founded by reporters precisely to ensure that reports about Mindanao, an island grouping that has suffered misinformation and disinformation long before these words became fashionable, are accurate.
 
Our policy has always been to ensure that reports are thoroughly vetted before they are dispatched and uploaded on our website.
 
Our fact-checking initiative with a uniform format started in October 2021 as part of Internews’ pioneering Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator (PFCI) project. Internews is an international non-profit that supports independent media from 100 countries.
 
Prior to the PFCI project, MindaNews co-founded Tsek.ph, a collaboration among Philippine media institutions to fight disinformation and misinformation during the 2019. Tsek.ph did the same thing for the 2022 elections.
 
Where do you get funds?
MindaNews has sustained its operation through proceeds from subscriptions of its news service (news, special reports, opinion pieces, photos) and sales of books. It also receives grants from non-state actors. Editorial prerogative, however, is left entirely to MindaNews.
 
MindaNews does not accept funds from politicians or domestic or foreign states for its fact-checking initiative. For the other operations of MindaNews as a media organization, we have received grants from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The grants from NED and UNESCO have been used for coverage, staff compensation, administrative expenses, and to train fellow journalists.
 
For MindaNews’ fact-checking initiatives, it received support from Internews (September 2021 to October 2022) and the BUILD grant administered by the International Fact-Checking Network (August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2024).
 
As a matter of policy, MindaNews does not allow these funders to interfere in our editorial processes.
 
Do you accept leads from the public for your fact-checking initiative?
 
MindaNews encourages the public to provide us with leads not only for potential fact-check pieces but other news stories as well of interest to the general public.
Our fact checks include this paragraph encouraging readers to be part of the process: “As with all our other reports, MindaNews welcomes leads or suggestions from the public to potential fact check pieces.”

MindaNews Fact Check - Methodology

What standards do you follow when fact-checking?


As a news organization, we strictly adhere to accuracy, fairness, balance, independence, accountability and transparency not just in our fact-checking initiative but in all other aspects of our work at MindaNews.


We abide by the Philippine Press Institute’s Journalist’s Code of Ethics. Since we became part of Internews’ Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator project, we have been striving to adhere with the IFCN Code of Principles, in step with our organization’s commitment to non-partisanship, transparency and fairness.


We fact-check a claim that is specifically claimed to be a fact and involved the public interest or the welfare of the people. We debunk false claims using official government records, journals or interviews with experts. 


We don’t fact-check opinions.

How do we fact-check?

Step 1: Team members monitor press conferences, speeches, statements, news, interviews, social media sites, etc. for statements worth fact-checking.


Step 2: When a claim is worth fact-checking, a team member looks for multiple sources to dispute the claim, including tracing the original source document.


Step 3:  Fact-checked claims are then submitted to the editor for copy editing and vetting. The link/s to debunk the claim are always included in the story.  


Step 4: A rating card is prepared to accompany the fact-checked piece, or infographics if needed, to immediately flag readers what the article is all about. 


Step 5: The senior editor takes another look before the article is posted on the website and social media accounts.

Correction Policy

Consistent with our vision and mission as a media institution, we rectify any error committed. If you spot a factual error, you may notify us thru editor@mindanews.com or our Facebook Messenger @Mindanews.


Correction Workflow


  • Errors pointed out are immediately brought to the attention of the editors and the fact-checking team. 


  • The fact-checker is immediately notified for verification. 


  • Once verified, the error is to be corrected within 24 hours and vetted before publication on the website. 


  • Readers will immediately know errors have been corrected through the Editor’s note posted above the article. 


  • The person who notified MindaNews about the error will be informed that the correction has been made.

Submit a Correction

About MindaNews

MindaNews is the news service arm of the Mindanao Institute of Journalism (MinJourn). It is composed of independent, professional journalists who believe and practice people empowerment through media. MinJourn, which is duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission with registration number CN201700385, is managed by its Board of Directors.

MindaNews values its journalistic independence. It started in May 2001 as a media cooperative and in January 2017 registered as a nonstock, nonprofit media organization.  We do not  accept funding from politicians, political parties or partisan groups.

Editorial staff

Fact-checking Unit: Romer (Bong) Sarmiento, Yas D. Ocampo

 

Mindanao Institute of Journalism

 

Board of Directors

President & CEO: Jowel Canuday, D.Phil. (oxon.)
Vice President: Romer S. Sarmiento

Members
Carolyn O. Arguillas, M.A.
Rhodora Gail T. Ilagan, Ph.D.
Amalia B. Cabusao (Doc Can.)
Robert D. Timonera
Ellen P. Alinea