Student event clip misrepresented as protest against Rodrigo Duterte's arrest

Published on March 12, 2025 at 10:32
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

Supporters of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte have protested his arrest for crimes against humanity, but footage that spread widely on social media does not show a prayer rally on March 11, 2025. The clip depicts students attending a journalism event in southern Mindanao island two weeks prior.

"Prayer Rally / Sultan Kudarat / We stand Tatay Digong," reads text over a TikTok video shared March 11, referring to a province in Mindanao and using Duterte's popular nickname.

The video -- viewed over 50,000 times -- shows a crowd gathered in an open space, with some clad in white and green colours associated with the Duterte family.

Screenshot of the false TikTok post taken March 12, 2025

Several TikTok and Facebook posts also shared the video hours after Duterte was arrested in Manila on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to his brutal war on drugs (archived link).

The 79-year-old faces a charge of "the crime against humanity of murder", according to the court, for the crackdown that rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands of mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.

He was flown on a plane bound for The Hague in the Netherlands, where he will be taken to the court's detention unit.

The former leader is still hugely popular among many in the Philippines who supported his quick-fix solutions to crime, and he remains a potent political force.

Comments on the posts indicate many users believed the video was recent.

"Thank you for your support, let's protect Father Digs (Duterte)," one says.

Another user commented: "Count my family in."

Local media covered protests supporting Duterte on the day of his arrest, but the video circulating online is unrelated (archived here and here).

Local journalism event

A reverse image search of keyframes on Google led to a Facebook video that regional radio station Bombo Radyo Koronadal posted February 25, 2025 (archived link).

"LOOK: The current situation at the Sultan Kudarat Gymnasium, where participants of the 2025 Regional Schools Press Conference are gradually arriving," its Visayan-language caption reads.

Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and the video from Bombo Radyo Koronadal

The state-run Philippine Information Agency of Sultan Kudarat posted a similar video the following day (archived link).

The attendees' outfits and the white fence in the background match elements from the misrepresented clip.

A memo on the official website for the region's Department of Education confirms the journalism event took place in the Mindanao province of Sultan Kudarat on February 25 (archived link).

AFP also verified the location where Bombo Radyo's video was filmed using Google Maps (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the false TikTok video (L) and Google Maps Street View in front of the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Gymnasium

Posts falsely depicting crowds supporting Duterte and his family have swirled online for months, many of which AFP has debunked.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail