A YouTube video is claiming that President Bongbong Marcos and former president Rodrigo Duterte have met in Davao City, supposedly to patch things up after their recent word war. This is misleading. No such meeting between them recently took place.
Uploaded on Feb. 10, three days after Marcos visited Davao City, the video’s headline read:
“KAKAPASOK LANG GoodNews Malacañang! PBBM sa Davao Kinausap mga Duterte NAGKA-ISA na PBBM PRRD VPSARA (Just in! Good news Malacañang! PBBM in Davao has talked to the Dutertes. Now united PBBM, PRRD, VP Sara).”
Its thumbnail also showed a photo of Marcos and Duterte talking, along with text that read: “NAGKAUSAP NA! ITO NA PINAKA-ANTAY NG LAHAT! SANIB PWERSA NA (Have already talked! This is what everyone is waiting for! Joined forces now).”
Marcos did not meet with Duterte in the four events he attended in the city on Feb. 7. No press release from the government nor media reports support this claim.
It was only Vice President Sara Duterte who was present in three of those four events, which included the distribution of land e-titles to agrarian reform beneficiaries, a situation briefing on the floods that ravaged the Davao region, and a contract signing for the Davao Public Transport Modernization Project.
Reverse image search also showed that the photo of Marcos and Duterte on the thumbnail was originally taken in August 2023 when the two discussed the former president’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping weeks prior.
Marcos and Duterte openly traded barbs in January, accusing each other of taking drugs, with the latter also calling for Mindanao to split from the Philippines.
Uploaded by previously fact-checked YouTube channels PINAS NEWS INSIDER, AI TOO KAYE, WANGBUDISS TV and PINAS NEWS REVIEW, the video has garnered a total of 370,768 interactions.
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