Doctored video from pope's East Timor visit falsely shared as 'Duterte rally'
- Published on September 19, 2024 at 10:22
- 3 min read
- By Lucille SODIPE, AFP Philippines
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The clip, which shows throngs of people and vehicles in the street, racked up more than 300,000 views in a TikTok post from September 13.
"The people truly love the Dutertes so much until now," read Tagalog-language text overlaid on the clip.
The crowds could apparently be heard chanting "Duterte! Duterte!" while a man narrating the video said: "Wow, there's so many people. They're showing tremendous support for PRRD", referring to the former president's initials.
The manipulated clip was shared elsewhere on TikTok here and here and on Facebook.
Marcos and Sara Duterte, the former president's daughter, teamed up to a landslide victory in the May 2022 presidential and vice presidential election.
But relations between the two powerful families have since plummeted as they both attempted to shore up their rival support bases and secure key positions ahead of the mid-term elections and presidential polls in 2028 (archived link).
Some Facebook and TikTok users appeared to believe the clip showed an outpouring of support for the Dutertes.
"Count me in! Solid Duterte!" one said in the comments.
"Wow, so many people!" another wrote.
However, the clip's audio was manipulated.
The sound of crowds chanting "Duterte! Duterte!" was taken from footage posted on Facebook on June 30 by pro-Duterte broadcaster SMNI (archived link).
The video was captioned in Tagalog: "Overseas Filipino Workers in Hong Kong, it's Duterte's name they're shouting".
AFP previously fact-checked a doctored video that similarly misused the pro-Duterte chant.
East Timor footage
Moreover, a reverse image search of the crowds footage found a higher quality version posted on TikTok by the account @rey.marques on September 11. It has been viewed more than two million times (archived link).
Hashtags in the video's caption suggested it was filmed during the pope's visit to East Timor.
The pontiff celebrated mass for hundreds of thousands of faithful in the tiny Southeast Asian nation on September 10 (archived link).
Around 600,000 people out of a population of 1.3 million attended the mass, the Vatican said in a statement, citing local authorities, in the biggest turnout for a papal event by population proportion outside the Holy See.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the altered video (left) and the TikTok footage (right):
The clearer video shows the flag of East Timor on street lights and a poster of the pontiff.
Rey Marques, a photographer based in the capital Dili who owns the TikTok account, told AFP he did not know who filmed the video but identified the scene as near the Raikotu General Cemetery in the city.
AFP confirmed the location of the footage by comparing it to Google Street View imagery from the area (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison highlighting a house, street and tree in the TikTok video (left) and the corresponding elements on Google Street View (right):
A livestream on the Facebook page of local media outlet TVET Entertainment shows a similar scene of crowds walking after the mass (archived here).
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