A YouTube video is claiming that former president Rodrigo Duterte is finally coming home after the Supreme Court supposedly issued an order or “ultimatum” to the Marcos administration for his immediate return to the Philippines. This is false.
Such an order does not exist. The SC has acted only on the consolidated petitions for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Veronica “Kitty” Duterte, Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte and Davao City Rep. Paolo “Pulong” Duterte in March, seeking to secure the release of their father from International Criminal Court detention in The Hague.
Uploaded on Nov. 29, the almost 25-minute video bore a title that read:
“FINISH NA! KORTE at mga JUDGE KINALAMPAG na ang PALASYO TIKL0P sa HAT0L! PRRD UUWI NA SAWAKAS!”
(It’s finished! The court and the judges have pressed the Palace, silenced by the verdict! PRRD is coming home at last!)
In the beginning of the video, an anonymous narrator can be heard saying:
“Korte Suprema, gumalaw na at naglabas ng matinding utos o ultimatum sa gobyernong ngagba ni Marcos Jr. sa agarang pagpapauwi sa dating pangulong Duterte dito sa Pilipinas.”
(The SC has acted and issued a strong order or ultimatum to the Marcos Jr. administration to immediately bring former president Duterte back to the Philippines.)
The video merely cited a Facebook post on the SC resolution dated Nov. 11, directing several high-ranking government officials of the Marcos administration and Duterte’s three children to submit their respective memoranda on the petitions for habeas corpus concerning the March 11 arrest and transfer of the former president to the International Criminal Court.
All parties were asked to consider the issues of whether the present controversy is already moot, if the SC must exercise restraint in view of the ongoing proceedings before the ICC, and whether a writ of habeas corpus must be issued.
At no point in the resolution did the SC order the Marcos administration to hasten Duterte’s return to the Philippines, contrary to the claims made in the YouTube video.
At the Saturday News Forum on Nov. 29, ICC assistant to counsel Kristina Conti said a decision of the SC on Duterte’s release plea “has no bearing” on the ongoing ICC proceedings because the custody of Duterte has already been transmitted to the international tribunal.
“And second, technical lang ito (It’s just technical). It’s just procedural,” Conti added.
The video with an untrue claim surfaced a day after the ICC Appeals Chamber on Nov. 28 upheld the Sept. 26 ruling of the tribunal’s Pre-Trial Chamber I, rejecting Duterte’s plea for temporary release. With this denial of his appeal, Duterte remains at the ICC detention facility at the Scheveningen prison complex in The Hague, Netherlands.
Posted by YouTube channel PINAS NEWS INSIDER (created on Dec. 26, 2015 and whose videos have been repeatedly fact checked by VERA Files), the false video has so far garnered 101,029 views, 6,000 reactions and 765 comments. On Nov. 30, its thumbnail was reposted by FB page Pinoy Glam (created on Aug. 27, 2024, with its listed locations for people who manage the page including Vietnam, Philippines and the United States), receiving 1,961 engagements as of writing.
