A video on YouTube is erroneously claiming that former President Rodrigo Duterte has replaced Rep. Martin Romualdez as the new speaker of the House of Representatives. This is not true.
Published on Feb. 12, the video bore the untrue headline:
“KAKAPASOK LANG GoodNews! Pres Marcos kamay na Bakal sa Kongreso FPRRD Kumpirmado Speaker Pinalitan
(Just in, good news! President [Ferdinand] Marcos’ iron hand in Congress. Former President Rodrigo Duterte confirmed, speaker replaced).”
The video thumbnail also carried the text that read:
“FPPRD SA KAMARA! WAWALISIN ANG KONGRESO. BAGONG SPEAKER! (Duterte in the House of Representatives! Will clean up Congress. New speaker!)”
The clickbait headline is not true. Duterte, who was not elected as a member of Congress, cannot be made speaker of the House.
According to Article VI, Section 16 of the 1987 Constitution, the House of Representatives shall elect a speaker from within their ranks, which Duterte is not a member of.
This false claim was also never mentioned in the video, with the narrator only mentioning the possibility of the former president running for a position in Congress in the 2025 midterm elections.
This video emerged after Duterte and President Bongbong Marcos engaged in a word war, casting doubts on the political alliance of the two families. However, Vice President Sara Duterte said she and Marcos “are okay” despite tensions between their families.
The spurious video was published by YouTube channel PINAS NEWS INSIDER (created on Dec. 26 2015), garnering over 124,000 views and 3,700 interactions.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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