Video of Bernie Sanders rally misrepresented as 'pro-Duterte demonstration'
- Published on April 15, 2025 at 10:51
- 3 min read
- By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines
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The TikTok video of a protest in front of a white building was viewed 1.4 million times after it was shared on March 25.
A man's voice can be heard saying in English: "In the hundreds of rallies that I have done, we have never ever had a rally as large as this!"
"Only Father Digong is capable of doing this, even in the Netherlands," says sticker text on the video, referring to the ex-leader using his nickname.
The video surfaced elsewhere on Facebook and TikTok with a similar claim as hundreds of Duterte's supporters held protests in parts of Europe to call for his release after he was handed over to the International Criminal Court for his brutal war on drugs (archived link).
Duterte stands accused of the crime against humanity of murder over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups said killed thousands (archived link).
But the clip in fact shows a rally by US Senator Bernie Sanders in the western state of Colorado.
Reverse image searches using one of the video's keyframes found it was shared on March 21 on Facebook by a user based in Denver, Colorado, who credits the quote about the size of the rally to Sanders (archived link).
Further keyword searches led to a live-streamed video on Sanders' official Facebook page on March 21 (archived link).
"Fighting oligarchy with Bernie and AOC," reads the video's title, referring to the initials of Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
At the video's 30:21 mark, Sanders can be heard saying: "In the hundreds of rallies that I have done, we have never ever had a rally as large as this!"
US broadcaster CBS News reported more than 30,000 people attended the "Fighting Oligarchy" tour -- a nationwide campaign organised by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez to fight Trump and the Republican agenda -- in the US state of Colorado on March 21 (archived link).
AFP confirmed that the video was filmed at the Denver Civic Center Park in Colorado using Google Maps' Street View imagery (archived link).
Social media has been awash with false posts misrepresenting pro-Duterte rallies since his March 11 arrest, many of which AFP has debunked here.
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