A Facebook (FB) Reel and a TikTok video are supposedly showing hordes of people participating in a rally in support of the Duterte family. Not true: The video was actually captured during Pope Francis’ visit to East Timor from Sept. 9 to 11.
These false videos, published on Sept. 13, were edited to make it sound like the crowd was chanting “Duterte!”. They also carried this caption:
“TUMAYO MGA BALAHIBO KO NGAUN LANG.ANG MULA NOON LALONG DUMAMI KACING DAMI NG BUHANGIN WOW!NAKAKATABA NG PUSO GRAVINAKAKAIYAK (sic) MALULA KA SA SAYA💚💚WALA NG TATALO PA.DUTERTES SUPPORTERS👊💚🫰🏽.HINDI BINALITA NG MGA BAYARANG MAINSTREAM MEDIA.
(I got goosebumps just now. They increased, as abundant as sand. Wow! This is heartwarming, you’ll cry tears of joy. No one can beat Duterte’s supporters. Mainstream media did not report this).”
The posts appeared four days after Pope Francis arrived in East Timor as part of his Southeast Asian tour.
The video actually shows flocks of Catholic faithful after the pope celebrated mass on Sept. 10 at the Esplanade of Tasi Tolu in Dili, the country’s capital.
A reverse image search of the frames from the circulating video led VERA Files Fact Check to copies of the video uploaded on Sept. 11 on FB and YouTube. There were no Duterte chants in the clips.
VERA Files Fact Check also found three other videos (here, here and here) and photos (here and here) taken from the same vantage point, published on Sept. 11 and 12, respectively.
The footage showed clear views of two posters with the Pope’s image along the avenue where the crowd had converged.
The person who published the photos wrote in a caption that she was situated at Rai Kotu, a community in East Timor, when she took the photos.
Based on this information, VERA Files Fact Check looked for Rai Kotu on Google Maps. We were then able to establish that the crowd was walking along Avenida Presidente Nicolau Lobato, based on a comparison of structures present in the circulating videos and on Google Street View.
The erroneous FB Reel garnered 82,178 interactions. The copy on TikTok has received over 19,052 interactions.
