Old Duterte photo falsely shared as recent

Published on June 2, 2025 at 11:00
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

Philippine Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, the first police chief to enforce Rodrigo Duterte's brutal drug war, has said he intends to visit the former president in his detention cell in The Hague. But baseless posts claiming the meeting has occurred in late May have misrepresented an old picture.

"There, I'm sure Father Digong is happy that he finally saw Senator Bato at The Hague," reads part of a Tagalog-language Facebook post on May 25, 2025, using Duterte and Dela Rosa's popular nicknames.

"It's nice to see him in good health," adds the post which includes a picture of the pair at a dinner table.

Similar posts also surfaced on X, TikTok and YouTube.

Screenshot of the false post taken June 2, 2025

Duterte was arrested at Manila's international airport on March 11 and flown to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on the same day to face charges tied to his crackdown on drugs that killed thousands of mostly poor men (archived link).

Despite being in detention, he was re-elected mayor of his family stronghold Davao city in a landslide vote.

Communication has come sporadically and through surrogates, mainly his daughter Vice President Sara Duterte who has not announced any visit recently from Dela Rosa.

There have also been no official reports as of June 2 that the senator, the main architect of Duterte's anti-narcotics campaign, saw the detained former president (archived link).

Comments on the posts suggest many users were misled.

"Is this pic new? FPRRD is looking healthier," one user said, using Duterte's initials. Another wrote: "Must be nice to be imprisoned there."

A reverse image search traced the circulating picture to Dela Rosa's Facebook post on December 7, 2022 (archived link).

"We had a very serious one on one talk last night and our main topic was that he wanted to wish every Filipino a drug-free Christmas and a crime-free New Year," its caption reads.

Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and Dela Rosa's 2022 photo

Duterte's black jacket, Dela Rosa's grey suit and the table match those seen in photos that former transportation secretary Art Tugade uploaded on Facebook on the same day (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and photos from Tugade's Facebook post in 2022, with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP

State-run broadcaster PTV and local newspaper The Philippine Star reported that Duterte and his former cabinet secretaries held a Christmas gathering in Taguig City on December 6, 2022 (archived here and here).

Duterte remains in ICC detention as he awaits a confirmation of charges hearing on September 23 (archived link).

AFP has previously fact-checked several other claims related to Duterte's arrest here.

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