The stunning arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte by Interpol on March 11 has unleashed a torrent of disinformation across social media. Fabricated claims and misleading narratives widely cast him as a victim of injustice in an effort to garner public support.
Fact checks on spurious posts about Duterte’s arrest in Manila and his subsequent transfer to The Hague, Netherlands, to face charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court for his brutal anti-drug war now account for nearly a quarter of the 127 articles curated from Tsek.ph partners since early February. These have surpassed the two dozen articles (18%) related to the impeachment of Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, aggregated over a six-week period.
Tsek.ph, the country’s pioneering fact-checking collaboration, relaunched on Feb. 7 in time for this year’s midterm elections. It comprises 24 partners from media, academe and civil society, including five news organizations credentialed by the International Fact-Checking Network.
Deceptive narratives, mostly favorable to the 79-year-old Duterte (83%), began flooding online platforms hours after he arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport from Hong Kong. Duterte is running for mayor in Davao City this May.
Viral narratives included outright fabrications of local and international support for the former president and condemnation of his arrest. These were often presented through bogus statements in quote cards or articles bearing the logos of international news organizations, and misrepresented videos of unrelated events. Some clips falsely suggested that Duterte supporters were gathering in Manila, Mindanao and the Netherlands, framing the footage as a prelude to another “people power” movement.
Bogus quotes
TV host and comedian Vice Ganda was among the first victims of this massive disinformation campaign. On the day of Duterte’s arrest, a post featuring the celebrity’s image alongside a fabricated quote praising Duterte’s leadership in the war on drugs and COVID-19 pandemic began circulating on Facebook, TikTok and X. One TikTok post alone garnered 1.6 million views, while several Facebook posts collectively amassed 84,117 shares, according to Tsek.ph partners.
At least three manufactured statements attributed to reelected U.S. President Donald Trump have been flagged in fact checks. The logos of The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC and Fox News were misappropriated to glorify Duterte and justify his violent anti-drug campaign, which left thousands of civilians dead.
One of these fake statements depicted Trump vilifying his predecessor, Joe Biden, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., threatening to impose hefty tariffs on the Philippines if it failed to bring Duterte home.
Satirical posts from Reddit and other social media platforms about fictional lawyers from popular American television series or movies supporting Duterte were later passed off as real by large pro-Duterte online communities such as “Protect Vice President Sara Duterte,” a Facebook group with more than 173,500 members. PressOnePH, a Tsek.ph partner, also flagged what appeared to be dummy Facebook accounts spreading the false claims.
Quote cards purportedly from CNN and Fox News featured fictional characters such as Elle Woods (Legally Blonde), Saul Goodman (Better Call Saul), Annalise Keating (How to Get Away with Murder), and Harvey Specter and Mike Ross (Suits), portraying them as real lawyers backing Duterte.
Misleading videos
Old videos of domestic and foreign events unrelated to the former president’s arrest were mispresented as massive pro-Duterte rallies. The falsehoods were inserted primarily in the title, text overlay or caption.
For instance, a YouTube video from sports media outlet ESPN FC showing four million Argentinians marching in Buenos Aires to celebrate their 2022 FIFA World Cup victory was intentionally misreported as a pro-Duterte rally on Recto Avenue in Manila. Similarly, footage of Serbian protesters demonstrating against their government on March 1 were falsely touted as protests in The Hague against Duterte’s detention.
At home, a video purportedly showing a prayer rally for Duterte in Sultan Kudarat on March 11, the day of his arrest, was actually a clip of students participating in the 2025 Regional Schools Press Conference at the Sultan Kudarat Gymnasium.
A BBC News broadcast from the day before Duterte’s arrest, reporting that the ICC “has not publicized the warrant yet,” was misused in posts falsely claiming that the ICC had denied issuing a warrant.
Some posts falsely claimed that the charges against Duterte had been dismissed. A Facebook reel twisted the facts of a July 2023 PTV report about the ICC’s rejection of the Philippines’ appeal to suspend its investigation into Duterte’s drug war.
Targeting the First Lady
To frame Duterte’s March 11 arrest as premeditated, his supporters circulated a photo of First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos with two women, falsely identifying them as ICC pre-trial chamber judges who signed the arrest warrant.
Katrina Roman Quintas, president of luxury travel service Quintas-Mayenberger Inc., was mislabeled as Presiding Judge Iulia Motoc, and Katrina Ponce Enrile, administrator of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority and daughter of chief presidential legal counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, as Judge Socorro Flores Liera.
The photo was actually taken at the Manila International Film Festival in Los Angeles, California in early March.
Duterte appeared before Motoc, Liera and Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou on March 14 via video link from the ICC Detention Center in Scheveningen, The Hague where he is being held. The chamber has scheduled the confirmation of charges hearing for Sept. 23.
False or misleading claims surrounding Duterte’s arrest were overwhelmingly cross-posted, with 92% appearing on at least two platforms.
Facebook was the main driver (73%), reflecting trends from previous Philippine elections. TikTok’s reach, now significant among Filipinos, accounted for 43%.
Other platforms hosting the erroneous posts included Instagram and YouTube (20% each), X (17%) and Threads (7%), Meta’s text-based app launched in July 2023.
‘Kidnapping’ narrative
Even before the Duterte family publicly denounced his arrest as a “kidnapping,” a coordinated online campaign was already in motion, according to Philstar.com, a Tsek.ph partner.
It identified at least 200 Facebook accounts and pages that simultaneously posted identical messages—both before and after Duterte’s arrest—framing any potential law enforcement action related to the ICC warrant as “kidnapping” and “illegal detention.”
Philstar.com noted that this pattern, unfolding largely within a 12-hour window, strongly indicated a “copypasta” disinformation strategy.
In the weeks preceding his arrest and since the campaign period for national elections opened on Feb. 11, disinformation about political rallies, including those purportedly held by PDP-Laban chaired by Duterte, spread online. Several cases highlight the growing use of edited or misattributed videos to create a false impression of widespread support for the former president.
One such case involved a doctored video from the proclamation rally of the administration-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas for its senatorial bets in Ilocos Norte on Feb. 11.
A TikTok video fraudulently reported that the Alyansa rally took place in Iloilo and misrepresented the crowd as chanting “Duterte!” However, a review of the original footage confirmed that the audio had been altered, replacing chants for Marcos with those for his predecessor.
Ironically, Marcos supporters had previously edited the audio of a video from opposition presidential candidate Leni Robredo’s proclamation rally in Naga City during the 2022 presidential election, replacing it with chants for Marcos.
Likewise, the audio of a video taken on July 23, 2023 during the Zevra Festival, an annual music concert held in Spain, was replaced with a recording of people chanting in support of Duterte. The manipulated video was circulated days after PDP-Laban’s proclamation rally in San Juan City on Feb. 13.
In yet another instance, a viral drone video purportedly showed a massive crowd gathered in Mandaue City, Cebu, for a pro-Duterte event called the “Cebu People’s Indignation Rally.” Tsek.ph partners confirmed that the footage came from a Planetshakers concert held in Cebu in February 2024.
Tsek.ph partners have also identified instances of synthetic images—created using generative artificial intelligence—circulating among pro-Duterte groups on social media.
Several AI-generated images depicting massive crowds supposedly rallying behind “Duterte senators” have spread across Facebook. Meanwhile, multiple Facebook pages shared an AI-generated photo of a sculpture of Duterte, designed to appear imposing, alongside a supposed wood sculptor in a workshop.
Sara Duterte’s impeachment
Disinformation also targeted Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment.
Sara Duterte became the first Philippine vice president to be impeached when 240 members of the House of Representatives signed the fourth complaint against her, citing allegations of fund misuse, unexplained wealth, alleged murder plots and betrayal of public trust.
A manipulated photo falsely depicted the former president wearing a judicial robe at the Supreme Court, suggesting he would represent his daughter at her impeachment trial. In reality, Duterte’s face had been superimposed onto a January 2024 photo of Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo officiating an oath-taking ceremony.
The posts amassed 918,400 shares and 32,515 reactions on Facebook alone, along with 603,208 views and 38,700 reactions on TikTok.
Like her father, the vice president has a foreign leader supposedly objecting to her impeachment: North Korea leader Kim Jong Un.
Falsely hailed by a TikTok user as the country’s new president, Sara Duterte’s followers also released misleading videos claiming the Supreme Court had blocked the presentation of evidence supporting the impeachment complaint and had declared her impeachment “null and void.”
They went as far as saying the Senate had canceled her impeachment. The senators are set to convene as an impeachment court and take their oath on June 3.
Lawmakers under fire
House members who signed the impeachment complaint against the vice president also became targets of disinformation.
A YouTube video falsely said Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro and the House have withdrawn from prosecuting Sara Duterte at the impeachment trial. The House earlier formed an 11-member prosecution team that includes Luistro.
Several social media misleadingly claimed that House members were pressured to sign the impeachment complaint against the vice president.
Others mocked the lawmakers. Bohol Rep. Edgar Chatto was falsely depicted as having signed the impeachment complaint by mistake, believing it was an attendance sheet required to receive snacks. A fraudulent quote card alleged that Cagayan de Oro Rep. Lordan Suan signed the complaint in exchange for ayuda or funds.
Anti-Sara messages
Unlike her father, a third of the posts about Sara Duterte’s impeachment were unfavorable.
These included false claims that police generals had filed a fifth impeachment complaint against her. A manipulated video depicted overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong surrounding the vice president and chanting for her impeachment.
A TikTok video, meanwhile, featured an edited photo of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, a PDP-Laban senatorial candidate, falsely claiming that he supports Sara Duterte’s impeachment.
Dela Rosa, a former Philippine National Police chief who led Duterte’s war on drugs, said on March 19 he is considering going into hiding if the ICC orders his arrest.
The ICC has identified nine of Duterte’s co-perpetrators in the arrest warrant, but has redacted their names.
(Yvonne T. Chua is an associate professor of journalism at the University of the Philippines Diliman and the project coordinator of Tsek.ph.)
