A photo showing Philippine Army troops purportedly from the 10th Infantry (Agila) Division (10ID) supporting Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, is spreading online. This is fake and was generated using artificial intelligence.
VERA Files traced the earliest available copy of the bogus image to an Oct. 29 Facebook post that showed multiple Army personnel, two of whom were holding a banner with the text: “WE SUPPORT SENATOR BATO DELA ROSA.”
At least 16 additional posts containing the fabricated claim were tracked from Oct. 30 to 31. Some were shared by users and pages supporting the Duterte family, of which dela Rosa is a close ally, and in pro-Duterte FB groups.
In an Oct. 30 statement, the 10ID debunked the manufactured content, emphasizing that it “misrepresents the professionalism and political neutrality of military personnel by fabricating an endorsement that could mislead the public.”
Some visual discrepancies in the picture raised red flags about its legitimacy, including illegible text and blurry faces of the soldiers.
VERA Files ran the photo through five AI-detection tools—Hive Moderation, SightEngine, WasItAI, ImageWhisperer, and AIorNot—all of which flagged it as likely AI-generated, with the latter classifying it as a deepfake.
The AI-generated disinformation emerged as dela Rosa, who has a P50-million bounty on his head, ignored the one-week ultimatum set by Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla for his voluntary surrender, which expired on Oct. 30.
The senator has a standing arrest warrant from the ICC for charges of crimes against humanity in connection with the Duterte administration’s deadly war on drugs. Dela Rosa was chief of the Philippine National Police when the drug war was enforced.
Circulated by several FB users and pages, the posts with made-up claims have so far amassed 53,587 reactions; 4,232 comments and 4,774 shares, with two clips garnering over 1.5 million views.
