A video circulating on Facebook is recycling an old news report to trick people into believing that former president Rodrigo Duterte has gone missing from the custody of the International Criminal Court. This is misleading.
On June 12, a Facebook page uploaded a news report originally aired in March 2025 quoting then executive secretary Salvador Medialdea saying that Duterte was not at the Scheveningen prison in The Hague, Netherlands.
The two-minute reel included a superimposed text that read:
“Friday night today.
Nasaan kaya!
Hindi na daw Nakita ang dating pangolo (sic) FPRD wala daw Sa ICC
(Friday night today.
Where is he?
The former president can no longer be found. He is reportedly not at the ICC).”
This is an old news report aired on late-night news program Frontline Tonight on March 13, 2025. While it is true that Medialdea made the statement, ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah later confirmed that Duterte had been transferred to the ICC detention center after undergoing medical checks, a standard procedure for individuals placed under the court’s custody.
Duterte has remained in detention in The Hague since then. On May 22, judges of the Trial Chamber III ordered his continued detention, citing a real and substantial risk that he may “abscond or obstruct justice either on his own or through his associates.”
If a high-profile suspect like Duterte had actually disappeared, it would have been reported by the ICC itself or widely covered by mainstream media outlets.
The false video surfaced on the same day the international tribunal announced the appointment of a panel of medical experts to reassess the former president’s condition ahead of his Nov. 30 trial in connection to his crimes against humanity charges.
Published by FB page Chef secrets (created Nov. 16, 2021), the video has so far garnered 482,000 views; 5,000 reactions; 912 comments; and 1,000 shares.
