Netizens are circulating a graphic claiming that the gatherings for the 80th birthday of former president Rodrigo Duterte on March 28 received a Guinness World Record and that the Vatican has urged the United Nations (U.N.) to have him released from the International Criminal Court. Both claims are untrue.
On April 3, a TikTok user posted the “breaking news” bearing supposed images of Duterte in an orange shirt and what looks like a pope wearing a white skullcap. These images were superimposed on a photo of a crowd, most of whom were wearing green, the campaign color associated with Vice President Sara Duterte.
The headline below the Guinness World Records logo read:
“Guinness World Records Honors DDS 80th Birthday Rally as Largest Ever! Vatican Cardinals Urge UN to Free Duterte from ICC.”
These are false. While organizers of the Duterte birthday rallies aimed for a Guinness World Record for the “simultaneous gathering of people celebrating an event all over the world,” there are no reports of such recognition of the events from the award-giving body. Nowhere does it appear on the Guinness website’s list of record titles.
It is also not true that Vatican cardinals called on the U.N. to release the former president, who has been detained since March 12 at the ICC detention facility in Scheveningen, The Hague. The ICC is an “independent judicial body distinct from the U.N.”
Read the full story on VERA Files Fact Check.