Filipino Reporter Uncovers Disinformation Networks Rallying Behind Duterte Following Arrest

In a dramatic development that has sent shockwaves through the Philippines and international community, former President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila on March 11 and transported to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The ICC warrant charges Duterte with criminal responsibility for the murder of at least 43 people between 2011 and 2019 as part of his controversial “war on drugs.”

Duterte, who took office in June 2016, had openly declared war on the country’s illegal drug problem with alarming rhetoric. “I don’t care about human rights, believe me,” he stated during his early presidency. He claimed the Philippines harbored 3.7 million “drug addicts” and vowed to “slaughter these idiots for destroying my country.”

By the time his presidential term ended in 2022, human rights organizations and ICC prosecutors estimated approximately 30,000 people had been killed by police and unidentified individuals. Duterte had withdrawn the Philippines from the ICC in March 2019, but a 2021 investigation by prosecutors ultimately led to his recent arrest.

In the hours following Duterte’s detention, a coordinated disinformation campaign quickly emerged across social media platforms. Filipino journalist Cristina Chi of Philstar.com discovered at least 200 different Facebook accounts simultaneously posting identical messages framing Duterte’s arrest as a “kidnapping” and “illegal detention.”

“The coordinated message blitz bears signs of what disinformation researchers call copypasta – identical text copied and pasted across the internet by individuals, usually at the same time,” Chi reported. International news organizations, including Reuters, subsequently confirmed “the wave of pro-Duterte disinformation” that bolstered the kidnapping narrative.

Chi’s investigation revealed how rapidly this disinformation spread. “Shortly after the arrest of Duterte, I already had the sense that the arrest itself would be spun and framed misleadingly by the online disinformation networks that typically spread pro-Duterte narratives,” she explained.

The journalist noted that polarizing news events create fertile ground for disinformation campaigns. Using Facebook’s search function, Chi entered various combinations of “Duterte was kidnapped” and “ICC kidnapping” in both Filipino and English to identify coordinated posting patterns.

“I picked up on threads of the coordinated narrative when I noticed terms like ‘kidnapping’ and ‘abduction’ repeatedly appearing in statements from Duterte’s camp — his former spokesperson Harry Roque, his daughter Veronica, and Vice President Sara Duterte,” Chi said. “I had a hunch that they were trying to make the word ‘kidnapped’ stick.”

Without access to sophisticated monitoring tools after the discontinuation of CrowdTangle, Chi manually documented these posts. Her meticulous research revealed that seemingly authentic accounts were participating in this coordinated campaign. Many profiles displayed characteristics of real users, with some identifying as content creators or using Facebook for business purposes.

“The presence of real-looking accounts requires the reporter to dig even deeper to look for concrete signs of coordinated behavior,” Chi explained. “Our story wouldn’t have stood if I just tracked 10-20 posts with the same ‘script.’ That I found 200 — all within minutes and hours of each other — made the story more solid.”

The impact of such disinformation campaigns can be significant, particularly for undecided citizens. “If someone without a strong political stance reads more than a dozen posts repeating the claim that the ICC kidnapped a former Philippine president and they don’t do their own research, they would likely start to doubt the legitimacy of the arrest,” Chi warned.

This incident is part of a broader pattern of influence operations in the Philippines. Philstar.com has previously documented pro-China narratives related to South China Sea disputes and attempts to discredit Philippine institutions. Some of these campaigns have shown evidence of foreign interference.

For journalists covering such disinformation, Chi emphasizes that traditional fact-checking may not be sufficient. “Many of these narratives use facts to paint a misleading picture of an issue,” she noted. “In this context, fact-checking is not enough. At times, it is not the correct response at all.”

The Duterte case highlights the evolving challenges facing journalism in an era of coordinated disinformation campaigns. As platforms like Facebook continue to be weaponized for political purposes, the need for vigilant monitoring and transparent reporting becomes increasingly critical, particularly in countries with developing media literacy.