President Rodrigo Duterte has not “confirmed” he would run for vice president next year, contrary to a claim in a YouTube video that he already has.
The president, in fact, said in a June 16 speech that he would fulfill his promise to support House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez should the latter join the vice presidential race.
YouTube channel PH BREAKING NEWS misappropriated the speech in its erroneous June 17 video report that Duterte would vie for the vice presidency. It titled the video:
KAKAPASOK LANG : CONFIRMED! PRES DUTERTE TATAKBONG VICE PRESIDENT / TRILLANES-ROBREDO IYAK NANAMAN (Just in: Confirmed, President Duterte will run as vice president/Trillanes-Robredo will cry again)
The video was referring to former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Vice President Leni Robredo who are both nominees of 1Sambayan coalition.
The video’s thumbnail shows Trillanes and Robredo and on the left side, President Duterte on the right and the phrase “I SHALL RETURN '' sandwiched between, an apparent reference to Duterte’s planned comeback in the national government. The headline is similar to the video title.
A news ticker appearing throughout the video also repeats the false claim:
BREAKING NEWS CONFIRMED! PRES DUTERTE TATAKBONG VP (Breaking News Confirmed! Pres Duterte to run as VP)
In his speech, Duterte said a lot of people are urging him to run for vice president next year. But he only called it “a good idea” without declaring he was running for the position:
There are a lot of people pushing me to run for Vice President. It is a good idea, I think, particularly if we talk about the drug problem.
At the same time, the president said he will give way to Romualdez whom he said he had promised to support if the congressman runs for vice president.
Duterte said:
If you (Romualdez) run for Vice President, I will support you. And I will hold on to that commitment.
The ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) adopted a resolution on June 1 asking Duterte to seek the vice presidency and choose the party’s presidential candidate in the 2022 elections.
He earlier said in an interview with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy that he is "resisting" his party’s call for him to run as vice president to avoid accusations that he wants to stay in power.
As of writing, the video has 13,411 views, 500 likes, and 16 dislikes.
PH BREAKING NEWS was created on July 18, 2013 and has 531,000 subscribers and over 50 million views. It mostly posts pro-government videos.
FactRakers earlier fact-checked the channel’s false claim that American President Joe Biden had complimented Duterte in his 2021 Philippine Independence message. (JI)
References
A.Y. (2021, June 14). No mention of Duterte in Biden’s PH Independence Day message.
FactRakers. https://www.factrakers.org/post/no-mention-of-duterte-in-biden-s-ph-independence-day-message
CNN Philippines. (2021, May 31). PDP-Laban adopts resolution urging President Duterte
to run for VP in 2022.
PH BREAKING NEWS. (2021, June 17). KAKAPASOK LANG : CONFIRMED! PRES
DUTERTE TATAKBONG VICE PRESIDENT / TRILLANES-ROBREDO IYAK NANAMAN [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c12C3fEQSeA
RTVMalacanang. (2021, June 16). Ceremonial re-enactment of the signing of bills (speech)
6/16/2021 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb0AR38Mo0s
SMNI News. (2021, June 8). SMNI EXCLUSIVE: Pastor Apollo's one-on-one exclusive
interview with President Rodrigo Duterte [Video]. YouTube.