A YouTube video is claiming “good news” over a supposed Supreme Court (SC) verdict blocking the presentation of evidence supporting the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte. This is false.
The Supreme Court has not ruled on the vice president’s petition for certiorari and prohibition, seeking to nullify the fourth impeachment complaint against her allegedly on the grounds of unconstitutionality, filed on Feb. 18.
On Feb. 19, a YouTube channel posted a video with an inaccurate title, replacing some letters with numbers to evade keyword detection:
“Finally GoodNews! VpSara sa Hat0L ng K0rte Suprema Impeachm3nt Hinarang mga Ebdensya Hawak na ng SC?
(Finally, good news! VP Sara on the Supreme Court verdict on impeachment, blocked evidence now in the hands of SC?)”
The thumbnail read, “PANALO NA SA KORTE? VPSARA LUMUSOB NASA KORTE SUPREMA! (Already won in court? VP Sara invades the Supreme Court!)”
The video features only a narration of a news article about the filing of Duterte’s petition, followed by a political commentary from the narrator and a vlogger.
There was no mention of a decision by the SC throughout the 28-minute footage.
On Feb. 5, the impeachment complaint against Duterte garnered verified signatures of 215 members of the House of Representatives, citing the vice president’s admission to plotting the assassination of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and her misuse and malversation of confidential funds.
The video garnered over 200,000 views and more than 700 comments in just two days. YouTube page PINAS NEWS INSIDER, created on Dec. 26, 2015, has 1.11 million subscribers and over 108 million accumulated views as of writing.
