Clip shows fun run in Dubai, not 'rally for Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte'
- Published on December 2, 2024 at 07:52
- 4 min read
- By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines
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The video, which was viewed more than 270,000 times, was shared on TikTok on November 25, 2024.
It shows thousands of people wearing lime green shirts on a road flanked by skyscrapers.
Text overlaid on the video suggests they are supporters of Vice President Sara Duterte, who used the colour green during the 2022 national election campaign that she and President Ferdinand Marcos won by a landslide.
The clip spread as the Marcos-Duterte alliance spectacularly collapsed in the lead up to mid-term elections in 2025, with both sides trading allegations of drug addiction (archived link).
In an expletive-laced press conference on November 23, Duterte said she had instructed someone to kill Marcos, his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos and cousin Martin Romualdez if an alleged plot to assassinate her was successful.
The Philippines justice department subsequently labelled Duterte the "mastermind" of a plot to assassinate the country's president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena.
The same video was shared elsewhere on TikTok and Facebook alongside the claim it showed a rally by Duterte's supporters here, here and here.
Some of Duterte's supporters trooped to EDSA Shrine -- the site of a military-backed "People Power" revolt that ended the brutal rule of Marcos's father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1986 -- but have started leaving the area on the night of December 1 (archived links here and here).
A prayer rally was also held in their family stronghold of Davao city (archived link).
But the video shows a community fun run in Dubai and there are no credible reports that Duterte's supporters organised a rally in Dubai.
Dubai Run 2024
Keyword searches on TikTok led to video posted on November 25, showing a man speaking alongside the falsely shared footage (archived link).
The user -- @ryantorres2021 -- had taken to social media to refute the false claim.
"This is the original video, it came from me. It was the November 24 Dubai run," he said in a mix of English and Tagalog.
"But a lot of people shared this video to add their political statement or stance," he said. "I respect your political affiliation, but this is merely a Dubai run."
Torres uploaded the original video a day earlier (archived link).
Below is the screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the TikTok clip from November 24 (right):
Its Tagalog-language caption includes the hashtag "dubairun2024".
The user posted several other clips from the event on the same day, including here and here (archived links here and here).
The official Facebook page of the Dubai government's media office also uploaded a video of the Dubai Run 2024, the world’s largest free fun run, which was held along the iconic Sheikh Zayed Road (archived links here and here).
The footage falsely shared online also corresponds to Google Street View imagery of Sheikh Zayed Road (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the Google Maps Street View of the Sheikh Zayed Road (right), with matching elements highlighted by AFP:
AFP has previously debunked similar posts falsely depicting pro-Duterte rallies here.
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