MindaNews fact-checked posts on Facebook that former President Rodrigo Duterte is dead. These are fake news.
Fake videos that former President Rodrigo has died have been shared and/or reposted online starting Wednesday, June 19.
One such video was posted by Facebook user Random POST. It shows President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Vice President Sara Duterte and other Philippine officials sprinkling holy water on a flag-draped casket. Marcos is also shown delivering a eulogy.
The fake video turned out to be taken during a tribute for the late Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople on 28 August 2023 where Marcos delivered a eulogy. The manipulated video had been played 4,100 times on TikTok. Random POST has 4,700 followers on Facebook.
On Wednesday, June 19, YouTube channel PINAS NEWS INSIDER, which carries pro-Duterte content, posted a video with the headline “KAKAPASOK LANG OMG! Diosko po! Grabe ang Nangyare kay Ex-PDuterte Lahat Nabigla sa Balitang ito!”
The video, which had 62,000 views as of June 20, is a clickbait. The narrator herself denied that Duterte has died and blamed the rumors on “Dilawans” and “Pinklawans,” the pejorative term for the political opposition and their supporters. Dilawans and Pinklawans refer to the supporters of the late President Benigno Aquino III and former Vice President Leni Robredo, respectively.
The same clickbait video was first posted on the same YouTube channel last March 20, with the headline “KAKAPASOK LANG Diosk0 Hala! Grabe ang Nangyare kay Former Pres Duterte Lahat Nabigla sa Balitang to!” So far, it has generated almost 8,000 reactions and over a million views.
PINAS NEWS INSIDER has 900,000 subscribers.
On 3 February 2019, fake news about Duterte’s death also circulated.
Critics “cannot accept the fact that we have a President who, not only is unstoppable in changing the landscape and culture of politics in this country as well as putting an end to the drug menace, corruption, criminality and rebellion, but who appears to be indestructible and apparently immune from serious illness,” his spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement then in response to the rumors.
As with all our other reports, MindaNews welcomes leads or suggestions from the public to potential fact-check stories. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno / MindaNews)
