Supporters of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte have protested his arrest for crimes against humanity, but footage that spread widely on social media does not show a prayer rally on March 11, 2025. The clip depicts students attending a journalism event in southern Mindanao island two weeks prior.
“Prayer Rally / Sultan Kudarat / We stand Tatay Digong,” reads text over a TikTok video shared March 11, referring to a province in Mindanao and using Duterte’s popular nickname.
The video — viewed over 50,000 times — shows a crowd gathered in an open space, with some clad in white and green colours associated with the Duterte family.
Several TikTok and Facebook posts also shared the video hours after Duterte was arrested in Manila on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to his brutal war on drugs (archived link).
The 79-year-old faces a charge of “the crime against humanity of murder”, according to the court, for the crackdown that rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands of mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.
He was flown on a plane bound for The Hague in the Netherlands, where he will be taken to the court’s detention unit.
The former leader is still hugely popular among many in the Philippines who supported his quick-fix solutions to crime, and he remains a potent political force.
Comments on the posts indicate many users believed the video was recent.
“Thank you for your support, let’s protect Father Digs (Duterte),” one says.
Another user commented: “Count my family in.”
Local media covered protests supporting Duterte on the day of his arrest, but the video circulating online is unrelated (archived here and here).
Local journalism event
A reverse image search of keyframes on Google led to a Facebook video that regional radio station Bombo Radyo Koronadal posted February 25, 2025 (archived link).
“LOOK: The current situation at the Sultan Kudarat Gymnasium, where participants of the 2025 Regional Schools Press Conference are gradually arriving,” its Visayan-language caption reads.
Read the full story on AFP Fact Check.