Two YouTube videos, riding on a survey report that Vice President Sara Duterte’s trust and performance ratings are declining, claimed that she has stepped down from office.
Initially published on May 5 by a YouTube channel, the video was reposted by another YouTube channel on May 23 and continues to circulate this week. It bore this headline:
“KAKAPASOK LANG : GRABE TO! LAHAT NAGULAT SA MATINDING PASABOG NI VPSARA PBBM FL LIZA TAMBA NATULALA
(Just in: This is insane! All were shocked by the grave surprise of Vice President Sara Duterte. President Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, House Speaker Martin Romualdez are dumbfounded)”
On the republished video’s thumbnail, the following text can also be read:
“SAWAKAS (sic) RESIGN NA. BUMABA SA PWESTO, ITO ANG MATINDING PASABOG NI VPSARA (At last, [she] resigned. Stepped down from her position, this is the grave surprise of VP Sara)”
This is clickbait. Neither video showed any evidence to prove its claim but only showed a 15-minute video of a blogger’s political commentary criticizing the vice president’s detractors who were calling for her resignation.
There is no official announcement from the Office of the Vice President nor any public statement from Duterte herself about stepping down from her elected post.
Similar wrong claims have been debunked by VERA Files Fact Check. (Read VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Sara DID NOT resign, video of Marcos snub SPLICED and VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Sara Duterte did NOT resign)
Days before the spurious video was reposted and recirculated, an OCTA Research quarterly survey showed Duterte garnering trust and satisfaction ratings lower than those of President Ferdinand Marcos.
YouTube channels BANAT NEWS UPDATES (created on July 27, 2022) and AI TOO KAYE (April 11, 2019) published the videos, collectively garnering over 70,000 views and 1,100 online interactions.
