There is a circulating Facebook post claiming that Senate President Vicente Sotto III has been unseated after the majority bloc in the chamber voted to replace him. This is false.
On Oct. 2, the post was published by an FB page. It attached a graphic with a superimposed text that read:
“SENADO KUMILOS NA SA ICC. SIBAK NA SI SOTTO, INIWAN NG MAJORITY BLOC. (The Senate has made its move on the International Criminal Court. Sotto has been fired, left by the majority bloc).”
The post’s caption also read: “BIG GOOD NEWS! PANALO si FPRRD! LALAYA na SAWAKAS! MAJORITY BLOC Bumaliktad na PUMANIG sa DU30 (Former President Rodrigo Duterte has won! He’s going to be free, at last! The [Senate] majority bloc has finally sided with Duterte)”
A link provided in the post leads to a 30-minute video with a narrator repeating the false claim that former president Rodrigo Duterte is going home after being detained by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.
These claims are both false. In an Oct. 8 news briefing, Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said there are no ongoing efforts or signature drives to oust Sotto.
“There is no active courting or gathering of signatures like before. When Sen. [Panfilo] Lacson first revealed that [almost all sitting senators had budget insertions], I can tell you I was not talking to anybody [about a coup],” Cayetano said in a mix of Filipino and English.
While the Senate passed a resolution appealing to the government to consider asking the international court to place Duterte under house arrest on “humanitarian grounds,” the former president remains under ICC detention.
As of Oct. 13, the ICC website carried no report that its Pre-Trial Chamber I had ruled on the request for interim release filed by Duterte’s legal team in June.
(Related: FACT CHECK: Duterte NOT granted interim release by ICC)
ICC Assistant to Counsel Atty. Kristina Conti, who represents some of the relatives of victims of Duterte’s drug war, said in an Oct. 1 FB post that the Senate resolution may even backfire if the court sees this move as “political intrusion” and a way to undermine the court’s independence, among others.
The spurious videos emerged a day after Nicholas Kaufman, Duterte’s lead counsel, filed a notification to the ICC that the Philippine government had agreed to Duterte’s interim release.
FB page Duterte Active Supporters (created on Nov. 14, 2017) published the post, garnering over 1,300 reactions, 270 comments and 100 shares. It was also reposted on YouTube channel PINAS NEWS INSIDER and website Trending News Portal.
