Baseless posts on senator-judge in Philippine VP impeach trial mislead online

"Case dismissed! Marcoleta freed: plunder case dismissed by court!" reads part of a Tagalog-language graphic shared July 21 on Facebook.

It includes an image of Marcoleta, currently detained in a jail north of the capital Manila, greeted by supporters bearing placards as he walks away from a courthouse (archived link). The SynthID detection tool has flagged the visual as AI-generated. 

"Supreme Court rules: 'No proof of plunder,'" further text on the graphic says.

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Screenshot of the false post captured on July 31, 2026, with a red X and AI symbol added by AFP

Marcoleta was charged with graft and turned himself in just hours before Duterte's impeachment trial began, casting doubt on his ability to participate as a judge (archived link).

The House of Representatives in May impeached Duterte on allegations of graft, corruption, bribery and an alleged assassination plot against one-time ally President Ferdinand Marcos.

A guilty verdict in the Senate would see her removed as vice president and permanently banned from elected office.

The Philippine Constitution requires a guilty vote by "two-thirds of all the members" of the 24-seat Senate to convict. But the prosecution has argued the threshold should only include senators who take part in the trial.

Marcoleta's charges -- tied to his alleged failure to declare $1.2 million in unused election campaign funds -- include "plunder", a non-bailable offence in the Southeast Asian nation.

Similar claims that the Supreme Court had junked the case surfaced elsewhere among his and Duterte's supporters on Facebook.

However, the claim is contradicted by a statement issued by Marcoleta himself a day after the false claim surfaced.

Ongoing case

In a July 22 statement posted on Facebook, he asked the Senate to allow him to vote in Duterte's impeachment trial, saying he remains an elected senator despite his "temporary detention" (archived link).

Moreover, there were no official reports the Sandiganbayan -- which handles graft cases involving officials -- has dismissed the charges (archived link). 

The anti-graft court's third division conducted a preliminary conference, where prosecutors and the defence often mark evidence and list their witnesses, on July 28 (archived link).

After the Sandiganbayan renders a final decision, the losing party may elevate the case to the Supreme Court by filing a notice of appeal within the required period (archived link). 

According to the Supreme Court's official records, the only high court case involving Marcoleta was a 2009 leadership dispute within a party-list that was unrelated to his current plunder case (archived here and here).

AFP reached out to the Supreme Court and the Sandiganbayan, but responses were not forthcoming.

More of our reporting on misinformation around Duterte's impeachment case can be found here, here and here.