A Facebook post showing Sen. Risa Hontiveros and Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan comforting the two minor suspects in the June 22 school shooting in Tacloban City is fake and made using artificial intelligence.
The fake post published on June 23 carries the caption:
“Grabi a protectado ang mga crmnnnnnnnnal ngaun?? Tae na talaga ang batas ngaun dapat pag buhay ang kinuha dapat buhay din ang kapalit 😤🤨
(Wow, criminals are now protected? The law is really terrible. If a life is taken, a life should also be given in return).”
The AI-manipulated post used the actual photos of the two minor suspects when they were taken in custody following their arrest.
VERA Files reached out to the Deepfakes Analysis Unit of the India-based Trusted Information Alliance to confirm the manipulation using AI-detection tools.
OpenAI image classifier confirmed that the photo of the 14-year-old suspect identified as alias Nash with Pangilinan was generated using OpenAI tools.
Meanwhile, AI or Not was also 96% confident that it was AI-generated. It also labeled as “likely deepfake” the photo of the 15-year-old suspect identified as “Rod” with Pangilinan. Google SynthID noted that the photo was not made using Google AI as its watermarks were absent across the uploaded content.
The third photo of “Rod” with Pangilinan and Hontiveros triggered a significantly higher density of positive detection results across multiple automated tools.
Sightengine flagged the image as “likely AI-generated” with 90% confidence score. Hive AI returned an even higher verification threshold, classifying the file as a manipulated image with 95.7% certainty. Furthermore, AI or Not detected artificial anomalies, rating it 75% AI-generated. ImageWhisperer also issued an AI-generated verdict,
A closer look at the photos reveals several visual inconsistencies such as the picture frame hanging on the wall on the upper left corner of the first photo. It contains the same photograph of “Nash” sitting on the chair. Additionally, Pangilinan’s attire changes across the AI-manipulated versions. In one photo, he is wearing a bright green polo shirt, while in the other, his shirt is completely black.
Hontiveros denied having any personal meeting or photo taken with the suspects, warning social media users to be critical of malicious fake news.
The fake photos surfaced two days after the San Jose National High School shooting in Tacloban City.
Posted by FB page VP sara Duterte supporters and FB users, the posts have so far collectively garnered 3,234 reactions, 2,096 comments, and 591 shares.
