Filipino Reporter Unveils Disinformation Networks Defending Duterte Following Arrest

In a dramatic turn of events that has captivated international attention, former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila on March 11 and subsequently transported to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The arrest stems from an ICC warrant accusing Duterte of criminal responsibility for the murder of at least 43 people between 2011 and 2019 during his controversial “war on drugs.”

Duterte, who took office in June 2016, had openly declared his intention to combat the country’s illegal drug problem with unprecedented severity. “I don’t care about human rights, believe me,” he stated at the time, claiming the Philippines had 3.7 million “drug addicts” and vowing to “slaughter these idiots for destroying my country.”

During his presidency, Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in March 2019, a move widely seen as an attempt to shield himself from potential prosecution. By the end of his term in 2022, human rights organizations and ICC prosecutors estimated approximately 30,000 people had been killed by police and unidentified individuals in drug-related operations. The investigation that led to his arrest was launched in 2021.

In the immediate aftermath of Duterte’s arrest, a coordinated disinformation campaign quickly emerged on social media platforms. Filipino reporter Cristina Chi of Philstar.com discovered at least 200 different Facebook accounts and pages simultaneously posting identical messages that characterized 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 explained. Her investigation revealed a sophisticated attempt to shape public perception about the legitimacy of the arrest.

International news agencies, including Reuters, subsequently confirmed “the wave of pro-Duterte disinformation” was successfully promoting the narrative that Duterte was kidnapped by the court at the behest of his successor’s government, rather than legally arrested on legitimate charges.

Chi’s investigation into the disinformation campaign began immediately after Duterte’s arrest. With experience covering influence operations since 2023, she anticipated that polarizing events like this arrest would trigger coordinated disinformation efforts.

“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 explained. “I had a hunch that they were trying to make the word ‘kidnapped’ stick.”

Working with limited resources in a small newsroom and without access to specialized monitoring tools, Chi manually searched Facebook for various combinations of phrases like “Duterte was kidnapped” and “ICC kidnapping” in both Filipino and English. Her search uncovered a vast network of accounts posting identical or nearly identical messages within minutes of each other.

The investigation was painstaking. Chi reviewed each account individually, examining profile pictures, comments, friend counts, and posting patterns to determine their authenticity. Many accounts labeled themselves as “content creators” or used Facebook to sell products, attempting to appear legitimate.

“That I found 200 — all within minutes and hours of each other — made the story more solid,” Chi said, noting that she eventually stopped counting at 200 because the task became too labor-intensive. Many posts included the acronym “CTTO” (credits to the owner), a common Filipino social media shorthand indicating users were intentionally reposting content.

The impact of such coordinated campaigns can be significant, particularly for those without strong political convictions. “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 explained.

This is not the first time Philstar.com has exposed influence operations involving pro-Duterte networks. The outlet has previously documented campaigns related to the South China Sea dispute, including evidence suggesting involvement of pro-China or Chinese state media in spreading pro-Duterte narratives.

Chi’s work underscores the evolving challenges in combating disinformation. “Many of these narratives use facts to paint a misleading picture of an issue. In this context, fact-checking is not enough. At times, it is not the correct response at all,” she noted.

As Duterte’s case proceeds at the ICC, the battle over public perception continues, highlighting the growing importance of journalists like Chi who work to expose coordinated attempts to manipulate public opinion in the Philippines and beyond.