A photo showing Vice President Sara Duterte in handcuffs a day after a Quezon City court ordered her arrest over three counts of grave threats has gone viral online. This is fake and a digitally altered copy of an unrelated image of Duterte.
Published on Sept. 5 by a certain “Atty Joel Rodriguez Dizon” on Facebook, the photo showed Duterte handcuffed, but was later edited to add a disclaimer that the cuffs were “obviously added by [artificial intelligence].”
It was captioned:
“She made bail. But I have to admit it does give you some measure of quiet satisfaction even for just a tiny moment to see this woman in handcuffs…even if only in fantasy.*”
Another FB page republished the photo, claiming they had only seen the image “circulating in [group chats].” This copy was also later manipulated to show Duterte supposedly holding a bouquet and wearing a flower crown.
Based on reverse image searching, the original photo, published on the vice president’s official FB page on Sept. 4, showed that she was wearing only a wristwatch while talking with authorities when she visited Ateneo de Zamboanga University a day after the Aug. 18 shooting incident there.
Before the FB user and page made the edits, VERA Files ran the altered photo of Duterte in handcuffs through three AI detection tools—Hive Moderation, SightEngine, and ImageWhisperer. Results across tools showed a high likelihood of AI use, with Hive Moderation further noting that OpenAI’s GPT Image 1.5 must have been used to alter the picture.
The AI-manipulated photo emerged on the same day Duterte posted a P360,000 bail on Sept. 5 before Branch 98 of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court for three counts of grave threats.
The court issued a warrant of arrest for the vice president on Sept. 4 on charges related to Duterte’s remark during an online press briefing in November 2024, when she said she had spoken to someone to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos and then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself were killed.
Duterte has since denied the allegations, saying her murder threat against the three had been “maliciously taken out of logical context.”
The same remarks have been cited in her ongoing impeachment case before the Senate.
The two posts containing Duterte’s edited photo by Dizon and FB page Ibanag In the City (created on Aug. 12, 2020) have so far received over 5,199 reactions; 85 comments and 980 shares.
