A video of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. supposedly saying that a Filipino working in Saudi Arabia deserved to be executed has resurfaced online. This is false.
First uploaded on Apr. 29, the 12-second Facebook reel showed the president saying:
“[The] hanging was actually deserved”.
The latter half of his statement was obscured by a sound effect expressing disbelief over what he was saying. It carried overlaid text that read:
“BBM to the OFW executed in KSA
“the judgement of hanging was actually deserved!” –PBBM”
The clip was taken from a UNTV Hataw Balita Ngayon episode aired on Oct. 9, 2024 where he was pertaining to the efforts of the Saudi government to ensure that the decision to execute was justified.
It resurfaced on June 27 after Vice President Sara Duterte criticized the Marcos administration for its lack of “concrete plans and actions” for overseas Filipino workers affected by the Israel-Iran war in the Middle East.
In the original footage, Marcos declared that the Philippine government exhausted all means to save the OFW.
“We tried everything, and for many many years. And the Saudi government really tried to look and to be sure that the judgement of hanging was actually deserved. Nonetheless, we appealed to the better nature of our friends in Saudi Arabia to perhaps have another look and they did. Unfortunately, the law there is very strict. Apparently, the conviction has stood and one of ours has been taken away.”
According to the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, the execution was done without prior notice to both the embassy and the family “in accordance with local procedures”.
The OFW had been on death row for murdering the Saudi national over a financial dispute in 2020.
The Department of Foreign Affairs explained that the victim attacked the Filipino worker in his residence and he reacted in self-defense.
As of writing, the Facebook reel has garnered over 376,000 views, 864 reactions, 1,200 comments and 1,200 shares.
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
