A quote card circulating online is claiming that a certain judge from the International Criminal Court has “authorized” the return of former president Rodrigo Duterte to the Philippines in 2026. This is fake.
No records of such a statement can be found on the official website or social media pages of the ICC.
VERA Files traced the earliest copy of the bogus graphic to a Facebook post on Jan. 1. The fictitious statement attributed to a certain “Judge Whitney Solomy Balungi Tyson Bossa” reads:
“I now authorize the International Trial Court to facilitate Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s return to the Philippines in 2026 as a statement of support for the calls embodied in the signature campaign of the people under the banner “Tay, kami naman.” I hereby acknowledge the signatures and collective appeal of the Filipino people.
As we enter the year 2026, amnesty is hereby granted to Rodrigo Roa Duterte and his cohorts. I also wish to extend my warmest greetings for a very happy New Year to all.”
This is not true. The former chief executive will remain in custody following the ICC Appeals Chamber’s rejection in November 2025 of Duterte’s appeal to overturn the earlier ruling of the international court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I that denied his request for interim release.
Likewise, the ICC official website does not list Bossa among the judges in the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I, which is handling Duterte’s case over crimes against humanity in the course of implementing his drug war campaign.
The image of an ICC judge featured in the fabricated graphic card is likely a deepfake, according to results from artificial intelligence detection tools Hive Moderation and SightEngine.
A reverse image search using PimEyes, an advanced facial recognition tool, along with a cursory search on Google, reveals that the deepfake image in the fake quote card used photos of Ugandan ICC Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa and a well-known comedian during the 90s, Whitney Tyson.
The quote card emerged over a month after the ICC denied a request for release from Duterte’s defense team.
Published by FB user Janetha Vlog (created on Jan. 3, 2023), the post with an untrue claim has so far garnered 6,900 reactions, 912 comments and 400 shares. Maria Fema Duterte, a distant relative of the former president, reposted the fake quote card on Threads, which received 1,422 interactions. TikTok user farmconsultant later shared a screenshot of Maria Fema Duterte’s post bearing the graphic, which is no longer visible on her FB account as of writing.
