Jay Sonza posts daytime pic of proclamation rally venue with pre-sunrise time as caption

February 9, 2022 - 5:14 PM
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Philippine Arena
An undated photo of the Philippine Area in Bulacan. (Philstar.com/File photo)

CLAIM: A former broadcaster shared a daytime picture of a proclamation rally venue on Facebook with a caption claiming it was taken pre-sunrise time.

Jay Sonza on Tuesday posted a photo taken outside the Philippine Arena in Santa Maria, Bulacan and captioned it with the following:

“It’s 3:40 in the morning, February 8, 2022.
The venue is ready.” 

Jay Sonza Facebook
(Screengrab of Jay Sonza’s Facebook post as of Feb. 9, 2022 by Interaksyon)

The arena was the venue of the proclamation rally of presidential aspirant Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his running mate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio who kicked off the campaign season away from their hometowns.

They were accompanied by reelectionists Sens. Migz Zubiri, Win Gatchalian and senatorial bets Harry Roque, Herbert Bautista, Gibo Teodoro, Larry Gadon and Jinggoy Estrada, among others.

RATING: This is misleading.

FACTS: Sonza posted the picture on social media at 3:40 a.m. but the sun has not yet risen in Bulacan at that time.

This was noticed by some Twitter users who shared screengrabs of his status with comments.

Another Twitter user checked the sunrise time of a town where the indoor arena is located to check Sonza’s claim.

The arena is located in Ciudad de Victoria, which is an enterprise zone in the municipalities of Santa Maria and Bocaue, Bulacan.

Weather.com logged the sunrise time of Santa Maria at 6:24 a.m. on February 8. The same time was logged for Bocaue.

Sunrise refers to the “apparent rising of the sun above the horizon.”

When Sonza shared his picture on Tuesday, 3:40 a.m., the sun has not yet risen.

Why it matters

The former broadcaster’s post is still up on the social networking platform as of Wednesday afternoon, a day after he initially shared the photo with a misleading caption.

Sonza has over 30,000 followers on his Facebook profile alone.

He also has more than 4,000 friends who can see and reshare the misleading post.

Interaksyon is part of #FactsFirstPH, a multi-sectoral initiative promoting truth in public space and demanding accountability for falsehoods. For those interested to join the initiative, email