Pro-Duterte remarks falsely attributed to Philippine news anchor

Published on March 27, 2025 at 04:57
3 min read
By Lucille SODIPE, AFP Philippines

After Rodrigo Duterte was arrested and sent to the Netherlands to face a crimes against humanity charge, a screenshot of a TV report surfaced alongside the anchor's purported remarks defending the former president. But veteran broadcaster Noli De Castro, who branded the claims "fake", issued no such comments in the original news segment.

"Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte/Father Digong did not start the war to kill, he started it to save," reads part of a lengthy March 15, 2025 Facebook post with more than 24,000 shares.

It ascribes the quote to De Castro, a longtime anchor at Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN and a former vice president of the country. The post includes a screenshot of De Castro during his nightly programme TV Patrol (archived link).

"Duterte is gone, and the drug problem is coming back. Crime is rising again. Ask yourself was he really the problem, or was he the only one brave enough to fix it?" the post goes on to say, before ending with a call to bring the 79-year-old former leader home.

Screenshot of false Facebook post taken on March 25, 2025

Similar Facebook posts surfaced after Duterte's stunning arrest and swift transfer to the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to face charges linked to his anti-narcotics campaign (archived link).

Rights activists say tens of thousands of mostly poor men were killed in his government's crackdown, often without proof they were linked to drugs.

"Very well said, Kabayan Noli De Castro," read a comment in one of the circulating posts, using De Castro's nickname and indicating the user believed the remarks were his.

"You're right, sir Noli De Castro. He really is like a father to us. He's old, he doesn't deserve this type of stress anymore," another wrote.

But the veteran broadcaster never made the supposed statement.

ABS-CBN shared a post from De Castro's Instagram account on March 17, where he shared screenshots of the posts stamped with text that said "FAKE" (archived links here and here).

Screenshot of Noli De Castro's Instagram post taken on March 26, 2025

The same post was also shared on De Castro's Facebook page (archived link).

A reverse image search found the photo in the post was taken from a segment of a March 14, 2025 broadcast of ABS-CBN's evening news programme TV Patrol (archived link).

At the 59:41-mark of the hour-long newscast, De Castro introduced the report and can be heard saying in Tagalog: "For the first time, the International Criminal Court released details about former president Rodrigo Duterte's charge of crime against humanity, which became the basis of his arrest."

Nowhere in the segment -- or in the entire newscast -- did he make the supposed remarks shared in the false posts.

Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the March 14 TV Patrol segment (right)

AFP has debunked pro-Duterte misinformation flooding social media following the former president's arrest.

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