A Facebook reel showed three women supporters of former president Rodrigo Duterte rejoicing over his supposed release, making it appear he has been released from detention. This is not true.
An 11-second video published on June 21 had a superimposed text that read:
“Yes nakalabas na si Tatay digs (Yes, Duterte has been released)”
The erroneous video used an old clip of the former president arriving at the renovated Boystown Davao on Sept. 10, 2022 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Above the clip was the uploader’s own video, cheering for the former president’s supposed release.
Although there was no mention of the International Criminal Court and Duterte’s case in the post, it was published nine days after Duterte’s lawyer Nicholas Kaufman petitioned the pre-trial chamber to allow his interim release to another country which was not named, citing “compelling humanitarian reasons.”
On June 23, the Office of the Prosecutor in the ICC opposed the petition and asked ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I to junk the request.
“Duterte’s proclamations that he would rather die than appear before the court, or would finish ICC staff assisting with his arrest and transfer in a shootout, is not consistent with the behaviour of an individual committed to returning for his appearance at trial and casts doubt on his recently stated commitment,” the OTP said in its response.
The false claim circulated after the vice president said in an interview that her recent overseas trips were not related to her father’s petition for interim release.
Several Filipino netizens commented on the video that they were happy Duterte had been released. Others called out that the clip was from years back.
The FB user’s short video has so far garnered over 1,800 comments, 1,300 shares and 791,000 views.
Editor’s note: This fact check was produced with the help of a journalism student of the University of the Philippines Diliman as part of their internship at VERA Files
