Photo of Duterte saluting Chinese flag doctored

Facebook page Bantay Nakaw Coalition posted a manipulated photo of President Rodrigo Duterte wearing military uniform and saluting the Chinese flag.

Embedded in the Nov. 13 photo is the text “GHONDIWANGBU,” a wordplay for “DIGONG” (Duterte) and “BUANG” (crazy in Cebuano).”

The post was captioned:

Malapit sa katotohanan. 🇨🇳 (Close to the truth. 🇨🇳)

A Forensically image analysis reveals the picture was heavily edited, with manipulated regions of the image showing different contrast from its background.

Duterte’s face was superimposed onto a man’s body. A reverse image search shows the photo was from Getty Images, taken by photojournalist Manman Dejeto for Agence France-Presse during Duterte’s May 26, 2016 press conference in Davao City.

Sources: Bantay Nakaw Coalition (left) and Getty Images (right)

A TinEye reverse image search reveals the image of the military man was posted April 22, 2008 on a Chinese e-commerce site list.dangdang.com. The photo is no longer viewable on its website, but TinEye still has its thumbnail and metadata.

Sources: Bantay Nakaw Coalition (left) and TinEye search results (right)

The claim was made amid news reports that the Philippines received a P999 million China grant to rehabilitate the war-torn Marawi City, as revealed by the National Economic and Development Authority’s list of priority Build, Build, Build projects. (JRC, EEM)

References

Bantay Nakaw Coalition. (2019, Nov. 13). Malapit sa katotohanan.🇨🇳. [Photo]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/BantayNakawCoalition/posts/2503524916591354

De Guzman, W. (2019, Nov. 14). LIST: 100 projects under revised 'Build, Build, Build'. ABS-CBN News. Retrieved from https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/11/14/19/list-100-projects-under-revised-build-build-build

Lopez, M. (2019, Nov. 13). 'Build, Build, Build': New projects dominate in overhaul of priority list. CNN Philippines. Retrieved from https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2019/11/13/Build-build-build-revised-list.html

Philippines president-elect Rodrigo Duterte Speaks During a Press In Picture. (2016, May 26). Getty Images. Retrieved from https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/philippines-presidentelect-rodrigo-duterte-speaks-during-a-press-in-picture-id534338582?s=612x612

Rivas, R. (2019, Nov. 12). LIST: Duterte's revised lineup of Build, Build, Build projects. Rappler. Retrieved from https://rappler.com/business/244769-list-duterte-revised-lineup-build-build-build-program-projects