Another YouTube video is erroneously spreading – again – the claim that former president Rodrigo Duterte has been released from his International Criminal Court detention cell in The Hague, Netherlands. This is not true.
On Aug. 18, a YouTube channel published the spurious video. Substituting some letters with numbers in an ostensible way to evade keyword detection, the video’s headline read:
“BIG GOODNEWS! LAHAT NA-SH0CKED? FPRRD NAKALABAS nasa 1CC? 100% UUWE sa P1NAS – KAUFMAN MARCOLETA
(Good news! Everyone was shocked? Former President Rodrigo Duterte is free from the ICC? Will now return to the Philippines 100% – Kaufman, Marcoleta).”
Aside from showing a thumbnail photo of Duterte and Vice President Sara Duterte waving their hands outside of an airplane door – implied to be taken after Duterte’s alleged release – the 21-minute video opened with the narrator saying that Duterte was no longer detained at the ICC facility.
VERA Files Fact Check has debunked this false claim numerous times, and Duterte remains in the ICC detention facility.
According to VERA Files Fact Check’s own reports, this claim first emerged weeks after the ICC arrested the former president in early March 2025. Since then, the falsehood keeps popping up every time there is an update on the status of Duterte’s ICC detention.
A reverse image search also revealed that the photo in the erroneous video’s thumbnail was taken years ago.
This fabricated claim continues to spread as the countdown nears for Duterte’s confirmation of charges hearing. The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I provisionally scheduled the hearing on Sept. 23 to confirm the charges of crimes against humanity of murder, torture and rape.
YouTube channel PINAS NEWS INSIDER (created on Dec. 26, 2015) published the video, garnering over 12,400 online engagements and 186,000 views.
