At least two Facebook users have circulated a manipulated photo showing Sen. Rodante Marcoleta back in the Senate. The photo was altered using artificial intelligence.
Published on Oct. 8 by a Facebook user in a group page named “SARA DUTERTE SUPPORTERS,” the photo showed Marcoleta walking inside the Senate plenary hall wearing a brown Barong Tagalog, with a Philippine flag behind him. The photo’s caption reads:
“WELCOME BACK SENATOR RODANTE MARCOLETA 👊💪💚🤍❤️.”
Another FB user reposted the same photo the next day, bearing the same caption.
VERA Files ran the photo through a reverse image search and found that it was a screenshot from a video posted on a TikTok account of Marcoleta dated Dec. 13, 2025. It was then manipulated using AI to add the Philippine flag behind him.
Marcoleta is not back in the Senate. He remains detained at the New Quezon City Jail following his July 2026 arrest on a non-bailable plunder charge.
Although he technically still keeps his seat in the 20th Congress as a senator, he has been absent from the chamber while his trial continues at the Sandiganbayan.
No photo has been released by the Senate since his arrest, and the Senate photo archive shows no evidence that he has returned to the chamber.
In the original video, the area where the screenshot was taken showed no flag behind him, and no sunlight or light streak is visible above. Sen. Loren Legarda is also seen behind him, speaking to a man wearing a flannel shirt in the gallery.
VERA Files ran the photo through Hive Moderation, an AI-detection tool. The result showed that the photo was 43.7% likely to be AI-generated. The AI-detection tool also flagged that the photo was manipulated through “Stable Diffusion,” an open-source deep learning model that generates detailed images, art, and animations from text prompts.
The altered photo began circulating online after veteran columnist Ramon Tulfo posted on his FB account that, according to his so-called “tweety bird” or source, Marcoleta, along with Jinggoy Estrada and Mike Defensor, will soon be released on bail by the Sandiganbayan.
Marcoleta’s lawyer, David Gabriel, however, said in a statement published by Inquirer.net on Oct. 8 that he has no knowledge of the bail claim or of Tulfo’s source.
As of writing, the altered photo posted by two FB users has drawn about 7,500 reactions, 623 comments, and 68 shares.
