A Facebook (FB) page claims that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has decided to free former president Rodrigo Duterte after an alleged speech of a Nigerian Prince, Ali Ababwa, in support of the detained newly-elected mayor of Davao City. This is satire.
Posted on May 22, the satirical post featured a side-by-side photo of Duterte and the supposed prince with overlaid text that reads:
“People of the Philippines, I have saved your king!” – Prince Ali Ababwa after successfully persuading the ICC to free FPRRD”
The post bore a caption that stated:
“BREAKING NEWS!!! Nigerian prince frees Duterte from prison!.
Prince Ali Ababwa of Nigeria gave a passionate speech before the International Criminal Court (ICC) about the virtues of our great president Rodrigo Roa Duterte yesterday. Moved by Prince Ali’s speech, the ICC has decided to free Duterte.”
Some users in the comment section believed the post, expressing gratitude to the supposed royalty.
Duterte was not freed by the ICC.
A hashtag at the end of the post reads #satiretomgabobo. The FB user also wrote absurd translations in the caption of the post, claiming that the Filipino term malas is a word for “love” and sakit is “peace” in a Nigerian language.
A keyword search further reveals that Prince Ababwa is a fictional character from the Disney movie Aladdin.
The page has been posting satirical posts related to Duterte, who was arrested on March 11 for charges of crimes against humanity during his administration’s drug war.
The former president remains at the ICC detention center in The Hague, Netherlands as he waits for the confirmation of charges against him scheduled on Sept. 23.
The satirical post garnered 940 reactions, 227 comments, and 165 shares as of writing.
