A Facebook video claiming billions of supporters of former president Rodrigo Duterte and elected mayor of Davao City attended the Du30 Run Leg 2 fun run on Nov. 23. This is false.
The eight-second video on the event features a popular meme of a former professional basketball player. It was uploaded on Nov. 25 and carried the headline:
“Duterte support billion 😱😱”
The caption on the post said:
“Billion supporters NG tatay NG bayan😱💚🇵🇭
[Billion supporters of the father of the nation].”
Several news organizations which reported on the event, including Manila Bulletin, Mindanao Times, and Sunstar, as well as the official DU30 Run FB page, said that only over 5,000 people attended the event held to call for Duterte’s return to the country. Duterte is held at the detention center of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands to face charges of human rights violations during his campaign against illegal drugs when he was president.
Billions could not have been present at the fun run as there are only 117 million people in the Philippines, and Davao City’s population is just over 1.8 million. The Davao City Coastal Road, where the event was held, spans 17 kilometers and cannot fit billions of people.
VERA Files Fact Check has previously debunked similar false claims of massive gathering of Duterte supporters in various events..
The false video, posted by a Facebook page Jolyka Page (created on May 2024) which has over 370,000 followers, has garnered over 110,000 views; 342 comments; and 757 shares as of writing.
