AI-edited video falsely shows Baste Duterte’s 2028 bid

A Facebook reel depicting Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte asking whether people would support his candidacy in the 2028 elections contains digital watermarks identifying both its audio and visuals as generated or edited using a Google artificial intelligence (AI) tool.

The 10-second reel was uploaded Oct. 8 by a Facebook  account bearing the name Roderick Reputana Rizaldo with the caption “Go go na sa 2028 (Go ahead and run in 2028)” on the post and the text “Yes mayor go sa 2028 Solid DU30 kami (Yes, Mayor, go for it in 2028. We are staunch Duterte supporters)” superimposed on the  video. “DU30” refers to Duterte.

In the reel, Duterte appears to ask in Cebuano:

Muuyon ba mo sa akoa na ako ang mudagan karong 2028 para makabalos ta sa ilaha (Would you agree if I ran in 2028 so we could get revenge on them)?

The reel circulated two days after  Duterte’s sister, Vice President Sara Duterte, discussed her family’s possible political plans during an Oct. 6 press conference. 

The vice president told journalists that her mother, Elizabeth Zimmerman, had suggested that she return to Davao while her brother should pursue a national position. 

SynthID Detector and Google’s Gemini found a digital watermark embedded in the reel and confirmed that both audio and visuals of the video were generated or edited using Google AI.

Two other detection tools returned results consistent with AI manipulation. Hive’s AI detector assigned the video a 99.9% likelihood of being AI-generated, while Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector gave the audio a score of 18 out of 100, indicating that it was likely to contain deepfake or synthetic voice elements.

Other manipulated political videos involving members of the Duterte family have circulated online. In a separate Sept. 30 fact check, Fact Check PH reported that a manipulated Facebook reel depicted former President Rodrigo Duterte asking Filipinos to support his daughter Sara. It used altered footage from his Sept. 16 appearance before the International Criminal Court. VERA Files and Philstar.com identified the video as AI-generated.

As of this writing, the Oct. 8 reel had  garnered 34,586 likes, 11,567 comments and 3,363 shares. (KC)