The 17-year-old suspect in the January 2023 murder of a Filipino worker in Kuwait has been misidentified in millions of TikTok and Facebook posts, including outdated footage of a United States court hearing.
Since 2019, the video has spread in news headlines concerning an American teenager accused of murder.
Misleading Video about Filipino OFW's Death
"This is indeed the 17-year-old that murdered Jullebee Ranara in Kuwait," says a portion of the Tagalog-language text placed over the court footage uploaded to TikTok on January 29.
@julianaseanprince #onlymyhusband️️ #ofwsingapores #fypspotted ♬ original sound - juliana Tolentino1
The message was shared after the remains of Filipino worker Jullebee Ranara arrived in Manila on January 27 from Kuwait. Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople told local media that the suspect in Ranara's murder is her employer's 17-year-old son. She did not provide any other information on the suspect.
In a statement on January 29, the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait stated that the suspect "has been apprehended and is now being held in custody." The death of Ranara was characterized as "brutal and terrible."
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who attended Ranara's funeral in a Manila suburb, stated that his administration would schedule bilateral talks with Kuwait to evaluate the labor agreement between the two nations to safeguard migrant workers in the aftermath of Ranara's murder.
According to AFP Fact Check, similar videos have been seen over two million times on TikTok and Facebook in posts about Ranara's murder. Some user comments show that they trusted the allegation made in the post.
However, the video precedes Ranara's death by more than three years. Google keyword and reverse image searches revealed that it matched old footage released on July 3, 2019, to the YouTube channel of FOX Carolina News, a South Carolina-based US broadcaster.
It depicts Stephen Braden Powell's bond hearing after he was accused of the murder of Ja'Naiya Scott. Beginning at the two-minute and seven-second mark, the video in the misleading aligns with the old YouTube clip.
At 3 minutes and 11 seconds into the YouTube video, the judge informs the court that Powell has been charged with murder, four counts of attempted murder, and weapon possession during a violent crime.
According to a search conducted on the website of South Carolina's court department on February 3, 2023, the case was still ongoing. WSPA-TV, a South Carolina-based television station, noted in July 2019 that Powell was 17 years old when he was charged with murder and four counts of attempted murder.
On July 3, 2019, FOX Carolina News aired the live hearing on Facebook. The court footage was aired in a report by WYFF News 4, another South Carolina news outlet, on the same day.
Jullebee Ranara's Gruesome Death in Kuwait
Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople dispatched a fact-finding team to Kuwait to investigate the effectiveness of its overseas labor post and review pending welfare cases in the Middle Eastern nation in response to the growing demand for another restriction on the deployment of Filipino domestic workers to Kuwait.
According to Business Mirror, a day after the remains of OFW Jullebee Ranara landed in the nation, Ople made the news during a virtual press conference. The gruesome murder of Ranara, whose charred body was discovered in the desert after reportedly being raped and run over by a car, has provoked widespread protests and calls to stop the deployment of domestics in Kuwait.
The undersecretaries also attended the press conference for Foreign Employment and Welfare Services Hans Cacdac, Licensing and Accreditation Bernard Olalia, and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Arnell Ignacio.
Cacdac will arrange the mission, directed by a senior labor attaché stationed outside Kuwait. Ople noted that the impartial team would evaluate the overall performance and organizational structure of the Migrant Workers Office (MWO) or Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Kuwait.
Among the parameters the fact-finding team will examine, according to Ople, are a comparative study of the number of welfare cases of distressed OFWs over five years, the causes of the increase in these cases, the response time of both Philippine and Kuwaiti authorities and recruitment agencies in responding to calls for assistance, and the degree to which foreign recruitment agencies (FRAs) monitor their workers and screen their employers.
She added that the DMW, through OWWA, has collaborated with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct an autopsy on Jullebee's remains, per the Ranara family's request.
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