Supporters of Bongbong Marcos, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, gather in front of the Supreme Court in Manila on October 15, 2019. (AFP / Ted Aljibe)

Video falsely claims Marcos son 'Bongbong' won vice president court case

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 15, 2021 at 10:00
2 min read
By AFP Philippines

A video viewed hundreds of thousands of times in multiple Facebook and YouTube posts in January 2021 purports to show President Rodrigo Duterte announcing that Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jnr has won a legal challenge over the 2016 election result against his opponent Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo. The claim is false: the video in fact shows unrelated clips that circulated online as early as 2016. As of January 15, 2021, Marcos’ case against Robredo is ongoing.

The video was shared in this Facebook post on January 9, 2021. It has been viewed more than 450,000 times.

A screenshot of the misleading post, taken on January 14, 2021

The video’s title reads: "BREAKING NEWS TODAY JANUARY 9, 2021 PRES DUTERTE MARCOS HAS WON".

“Marcos” refers to politician Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jnr, son of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who lost the 2016 vice presidential race to Leni Robredo and subsequently filed a legal dispute.

An identical video was shared alongside a similar claim here and here on Facebook; and here on YouTube.

The claim is false.

As of January 15, 2021, the poll case remains pending before the Philippine Supreme Court.

Google keyword searches found the misleading video contains clips taken from unrelated reports that do not support the claim Duterte announced Marcos won his poll case in 2021.

The first clip in the misleading video corresponds to this portion of a January 7, 2021 live broadcast streamed by local news organisation Bombo Radyo.

The Bombo Radyo report states in part: "The Supreme Court could possibly release this January its decision on the poll protest filed by former senator Bongbong Marcos against Vice President Leni Robredo.”

The clip from the one-minute 54-second mark corresponds to this portion of the same January 7 broadcast. It is about the unrelated subject of constitutional amendments in the Philippines.

Finally, the clip at the three-minute four-second mark shows this portion of a speech Duterte delivered August 5, 2016. It was filmed during a visit to the Armed Forces of the Philippines headquarters in Cebu City. At the event, he discussed the government’s anti-drugs campaign and tax deficiencies by certain “oligarchs”. He did not, however, mention the Marcos-Robredo poll case in the video.

Below are a set of screenshot comparisons showing clips in the misleading video (L) and clips from their corresponding sources (R):

Screenshot comparison

Supreme Court spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka told AFP by Viber message on January 14, 2021 that there had been "no decision yet on (VP poll) case".

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