Edited video of Philippine rebel leader falsely linked to Duterte arrest

Published on March 14, 2025 at 04:20
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

Following former Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte's arrest on March 11, his supporters online shared footage they claim shows a rebel leader issuing menacing remarks against Duterte's once-ally President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. But the clip, which has racked up hundreds of thousands of views, is manipulated and actually depicts an old message of support for Marcos Jr.

"You should be scared, BBM," reads the Tagalog-language caption of a Facebook reel shared on March 12, 2025, using the popular initials for the Southeast Asian nation's president. It also included a hashtag calling for his impeachment.

The video in the post, viewed over 600,000 times, features an interview with rebel leader Nur Misuari. In one part of the clip, he says, "Bongbong Marcos" followed by a cut and then, "He was my number one enemy."

Screenshot of the false Facebook reel, taken on March 13, 2025

The post surfaced after Duterte was arrested in Manila on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to his deadly war on drugs. He was handed over to the court's custody in The Hague (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.

During his presidency, Duterte enlisted Misuari's help to negotiate peace with various armed groups in the country's troubled south (archived link).

Duterte's supporters also shared the altered clip in TikTok posts that attacked Marcos Jr, who used to be his political ally until a spectacular meltdown in their family's relations.

Marcos Sr

A reverse image search of keyframes on Google found the original interview published on the YouTube channel of VICE News on May 11, 2016 (archived link).

"Fighting for Peace in the Philippines: VICE News Interviews Nur Misuari," says the video's title.

Screenshot comparison of the altered video (left) and the VICE News interview

An analysis of the interview reveals the "number one enemy" Misuari describes was the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr -- the current president's father and namesake.

Misuari's Moro National Liberation Front fought Marcos Sr's government in the 1970s to wage a guerrilla war for a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines, where most of the nation's Muslim minority live.

He signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996 in return for the creation of a Muslim autonomous area (archived link).

Misuari told VICE News he was actually supporting Marcos Jr who unsuccessfully ran for vice president in 2016.

"The fault of the father cannot be inherited by the son. Neither the father can be accused of the wrongdoings of his son," he says in the clip.

Misuari also supported Marcos Jr's successful presidential bid in the 2022 elections (archived link).

AFP has previously fact-checked misinformation following Duterte's arrest here.

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