Clip of Sara Duterte speaking up on father's arrest 'in fluent Mandarin' is edited

Published on March 20, 2025 at 05:22
3 min read
By Tommy WANG, AFP Hong Kong

After China warned the International Criminal Court (ICC) against "politicisation" in the arrest of former Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte, a video appearing to show his daughter defending him in fluent Mandarin surfaced on Chinese social media. The clip is altered and originally shows Sara Duterte's presser outside the tribunal in The Hague where she spoke in English.

"Duterte's daughter and Philippine Vice President Sara delivered a speech in Chinese, bravely defending her father's honour as an 'anti-drug hero' and defending the country's interests and well-being of the people," reads a Weibo post shared on March 17, 2025.

It includes a three-minute long clip where the younger Duterte apparently thanks Chinese people in fluent Mandarin.

"Today I declare to the world that we will not succumb to any unfounded accusations, much less allow the trial of my father to become a tool to smear the image of the Philippines," she appears to say in part.

Screenshot of the false Weibo post, captured on March 19, 2025

The video has been viewed tens of thousands of times on Weibo, and also shared hundreds of times elsewhere on TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin.

Screenshot of the false Douyin videos, captured on March 19, 2025

The posts surfaced after the former Philippine leader's shock arrest and transfer to The Hague to face a crimes against humanity charge tied to his bloody crackdown on drugs in which thousands were killed (archived link).

His tenure as president was also marked by a swing away from the nation's former colonial master, the United States, in favour of China. He set aside rivalry with Beijing over the resource-rich South China Sea, opting to court Chinese business instead.

China has said it is closely monitoring the situation and has warned the ICC against "politicisation" and "double standards".

While Sara Duterte has been previously recorded speaking Mandarin, her level of proficiency in the language does not match what was shown in the circulating clip (archived link).

A combination of reverse image and keyword searches found the clip corresponds to Duterte's press briefing in The Hague streamed live by the Indian news channel CNN-News18 on March 16 (archived link).

Nowhere was she heard speaking in Mandarin.

In one part of the video, she describes the older Duterte's arrest as "kidnapping".

"That's forcibly taking my father to another country and illegally arresting him," she said.

The circulating video has been cropped and horizontally flipped from the original footage. The same scene has also been looped and dubbed with the Mandarin audio, as Duterte appears to repeat the same gesture and the people on either side of her seem to stay in the same position.

Screenshot comparison between the altered video (L) and a corresponding frame from the CNN-News18 livestream

Philippine media ABS-CBN News published footage of the event from a different angle which also did not include scenes of Duterte speaking Chinese (archived link).

Online misinformation was widespread following former president Duterte's arrest. AFP has debunked the most viral claims here, here and here.

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