Posts falsely claim Duterte scion chartered flight to repatriate Filipinos from Mideast
- Published on March 31, 2026 at 06:51
- 2 min read
- By Ara EUGENIO, AFP Philippines
Hundreds of overseas Filipino workers affected by the war in the Middle East have returned home with the help of the government, but social media posts claiming the youngest son of former leader Rodrigo Duterte arranged one such flight share an unrelated video of people boarding a Philippine Airlines plane. The airline and an official from southern Davao city, where Sebastian Duterte is mayor, said no such arrangement had been made.
"It makes me want to cry out of happiness to see our OFWs returning home safely to the Philippines," reads part of the Visayan-language sticker text over a Facebook reel shared on March 12, 2026.
The post goes on to thank the son of former president Rodrigo Duterte and current Davao city mayor Sebastian Duterte, known by his nickname "Baste", for arranging a Philippine airline flight for workers in the Middle East.
The post surfaced after his elder sister, Vice President Sara Duterte, was criticised by the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr after she claimed it would be easy to arrange repatriation flights for Filipinos caught in the war (archived link).
An estimated two million Filipinos are among the Middle East's 35 million migrant workers, who are one of the most vulnerable groups affected by the far-reaching war that started on February 28, 2026, when the United States and Israel launched sweeping airstrikes on Iran (archived here and here).
Iran has retaliated by sending volleys of missiles towards Gulf countries hosting US interests and effectively closing down the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway through which one-fifth of global oil passes (archived link).
To bypass regional airspace restrictions, the Philippine government has used land crossings to facilitate six chartered repatriation flights, bringing home more than 600 citizens so far (archived link).
Similar posts circulated on Facebook, with users praising the Davao city mayor for his supposed efforts.
"Thank you, Sir Baste. Long live to you! I wish you were one leading our country at this time," one user commented.
"I salute you Mayor Baste, you are like your father," another wrote.
But a Davao City official told AFP the claim is baseless.
"This is not true. We have no discussions with Philippine Airlines regarding this matter," information officer Harvey James Lanticse told AFP on March 26.
Lanticse said the city instead maintains a 24/7 crisis center for the families of affected workers and is coordinating with the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) to assist returning OFWs.
The country's flag carrier also denied facilitating such a flight.
"Philippine Airlines confirms that, to date, it has not received any requests from local government units for repatriation flights," a representative told AFP on March 26, noting that such flights are typically arranged by government agencies handling migrant workers.
Not repatriation
A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found the falsely shared video was first uploaded to TikTok on March 11 by Saudi Arabia-based user Danny Mangulamas (archived link).
He told AFP on March 29 it was a "late upload" of a past flight he took with his wife and that it "wasn't a repatriation" flight. He said the footage was not taken during the current conflict, but declined to elaborate further.
The Philippine Airlines representative also confirmed that the carrier had no flights scheduled from Saudi Arabia on March 11.
AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the Middle East war.
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