CLAIM: The late basketball player Rene Baterbonia was honored during Burj Khalifa’s light show.
RATING: FALSE
An edited video of the Burj Khalifa light show has been circulating on social media, particularly on short-form platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram Reels. The video misleads viewers into believing the light show paid tribute to the deceased college basketball player Rene Clert Baterbonia.
Flagged content: A 25-second vertical video showed a light show in Burj Khalifa that purportedly paid tribute to Baterbonia.
- 10 seconds into the video, a holographic photo of Baterbonia is projected over the building.
- This was followed by a rolling text that misspelled his name, instead reading “Rennie Baterbonia.”
- Various versions of the caption on reposts of the video assumed that the tribute was real, with some thanking Dubai and Burj Khalifa for showing such a “tribute.”
Our debunk: As of this writing, there are no credible accounts or reports of Baterbonia being featured in any of Burj Khalifa’s light shows. The show is synchronized with the Dubai Fountain tourist attraction.
- The video is a cheap edit made possible through the mobile editing app Capcut. The supposed Baterbonia tribute is an edit of one of its templates that allows users to paste their picture and their name to the original footage.
- There are several reposts of the same template across social media platforms, including this example from an Instagram user posted in January 2025.
- The original video was uploaded by a Facebook user on June 23 with a disclaimer stating the video “is a fan-made digital tribute. The Burj Khalifa scene is an artistic video edit and not an official Burj Khalifa display,” and it is “for content purposes only.”
Rewind: On June 8, news broke that Ateneo de Manila University student athletes Baterbonia and Nigerian citizen Chukwuemeka Divine Adili had died from a drowning incident during an alleged team-building activity organized by the Blue Eagles’ basketball coaching staff in Aurora province.
- What followed was a media frenzy, with content creators capitalizing on the viral potential of the scandal, sparking speculations surrounding their tragic death.
- Investigations immediately followed, with the local Aurora police seeing no indications of foul play. However, on June 17, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group ruled that the deaths were “not accidental” and sought to further investigate persons of interest, including the team’s then-coach, Tab Baldwin.
- Amid intense public and media scrutiny, Baldwin resigned on June 15 following a public apology.
Why we fact-checked this: Different versions of the post were widely reposted on social media and later reached Threads, Meta’s microblogging site similar to X (formerly Twitter), and continue to propagate on other platforms.
- “Lantaw ni Bai,” a popular Facebook blogger posing as a pseudo news media outlet, posted a now-deleted newscard that framed the Burj Khalifa tribute as legitimate.
- As of this writing, the original video has more than 25,000 reactions, 748 comments, and 7,300 shares, with many reposts consistently garnering thousands of views.
Spot the fake: As the tragic deaths of Baterbonia and Adili continue to gain public attention, many aspiring content creators are looking to capitalize on the opportunity to cash in on the “trend.”
- Although the public sentiment remains genuine, with Baterbonia’s story resonating heavily among Filipinos, many actors attempted to ride the outrage by fueling speculation and theories and hijacking the emotions of susceptible individuals—effectively shifting the narrative.
- With political unrest also in the backdrop, some hyperpartisan influencers and content creators repackaged the issue to manufacture a rift between Luzon and Mindanao, peddling secessionist narratives feeding into a coordinated algorithmic push.
- Read the Center for Information Resilience and Integrity Studies’ (CIRIS) analysis, published by PressOne.PH, of the media frenzy that followed. Hurt Allauigan
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FACT-CHECK: Dubai’s Burj Khalifa light show did not feature tribute to Baterbonia
Edited Burj Khalifa light show falsely portrayed tribute to late basketball player.
FACT-CHECK: Dubai’s Burj Khalifa light show did not feature tribute to Baterbonia
Edited Burj Khalifa light show falsely portrayed tribute to late basketball player.
FACT-CHECK: Dubai’s Burj Khalifa light show did not feature tribute to Baterbonia
Edited Burj Khalifa light show falsely portrayed tribute to late basketball player.
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