Miscaptioned video does not show mob attacking Philippine contractor tied to corruption scandal

Published on September 21, 2025 at 11:27
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has put ghost projects in the country in the spotlight, sparking public anger over corruption. But a video viewed 2.5 million times does not show protesters attacking the owner of construction firms implicated in the scandal. Sarah Discaya was not present at the protest during a budget hearing for the public works agency, the journalist who filmed the clip and the police told AFP.

"Sarah Discaya was assaulted by the public when she went outside / She deserves it," reads the Tagalog-language caption of a Facebook post shared on September 7, 2025.

The 19-second video appears to show a scuffle between protesters and police officers, which is later interrupted by a woman signalling for both parties to calm down.

Discaya and her husband and business partner, Pacifico Discaya, told a Senate hearing on September 8 that their construction firms had paid off 26 lawmakers and public works officials to secure government contracts (archived link).

Public scrutiny of so-called ghost projects -- construction jobs that have been paid for but never completed -- has been intensifying since Marcos put them centre stage in a July State of the Nation address that followed weeks of deadly flooding.

Marcos has since formed a three-person commission tasked with looking into the past 10 years of flood control projects (archived link).

Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken on September 16, 2025, with the red X mark added by AFP

The Philippine economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos ($2 billion) from 2023 to 2025 due to corruption in flood control projects, the budget secretary said (archived link).

The claim also circulated in other Facebook and Instagram posts and racked up a total of at least 2.5 million views combined.

Users who commented on the post appeared to believe it showed Discaya being assaulted.

"It's only right you attack her," one user wrote.

"She deserves it," another said.

But despite news outlets reporting that protesters pelted the Discayas' property with mud and rocks on September 4, the circulating video has been misrepresented (archived link).

Police clash with protesters

Advanced keyword searches on X found the clip was uploaded by Quezon City-based student publication The Philippine Collegian on September 5, 2025 (archived link).

"WATCH: Progressive groups and police clashed after the former threw paint, mud and fruit in front of the House of Representatives. The groups gathered to condemn the DPWH's anomalous flood control projects as the House is set to deliberate on the agency's budget today," says the video's Tagalog-language caption.

Screenshot comparison of the false video (L) and the clip published by The Philippine Collegian

Alex Lauricio, journalist for The Philippine Collegian, confirmed filming the video on September 5.

Lauricio told AFP he did not see Discaya at the protest and said the video shows an altercation between protesters and policemen.

Media outlet News5 also published a longer version of the video showing the clash (archived link).

The Quezon City Police District said the incident is "under investigation" and will file legal actions against the protesters (archived link).

The police also told AFP that Sarah Discaya was not at the September 5 rally.

The House of Representatives' most recent hearing on the corruption scandal was on September 9 -- Discaya skipped that session and was instead represented by her husband (archived link).

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