FACT CHECK: Sotto did not endorse Sara Duterte as her father’s replacement

Claim: The blog kantonewsph.xyz ran a post on Thursday, May 24 claiming that Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte was the only deserving replacement of her father, President Rodrigo Duterte.

The blog published the post with the headline “Watch: Inday Sara Lang ang Karapatdapat Pumalit kay kay Duterte Ayon kay Sotto” (Watch: Inday Sara is the Only One Deserving to Replace [President] Duterte according to Sotto).

The post leads to a YouTube video of Sotto speaking during his May 24 press conference at the Philippine Senate. It was uploaded by an account with the username “Pro Duterte Ka Ba?”

The blog post was shared with 13 different Facebook pages and groups which have a total of 2,824,794 followers. Within these groups, this claim has generated 10,366 in total interactions. 

The same claim was also published by at least 9 other blogs namely federalism.ml, dutertenewstoday.com, changeiscoming.ml, newzflash.info, pinas.info, phnewsaccess.top, pinoynewsportal.info, du30tribune.ml, and dailynewsph.ga.

Rating: FALSE

The Facts: Sotto did not say Sara Duterte was the only deserving replacement for her father, President Duterte, at any point during the Kapihan sa Senado on Thursday, May 24.

During the press conference, Sotto discussed the reimposition of the death penalty bill but for “high-level” drug trafficking only. For other crimes, he said that the bill should be studied first.

Sotto also said that the Congress could make a “conservative but well-crafted proposal” for the Bangsamoro Basic Law.  

However, during the weekly Kapihan sa Senado last April 26, Sotto said the Nationalist People’s Coalition would endorse Sara Duterte during the 2019 senatorial elections. (READ: ‘Friends of the party’ in initial NPC senatorial lineup)

Explaining the party’s choice of candidates, Sotto said, “[These are] The people we think are needed in the Senate and they are more or less in line with the objectives and ideals of the NPC.”

Kantonewsph.xyz has previously published misleading, if not false, news articles. For instance, a post published last May 20 post claimed Vice President Leni Robredo ordered former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to call for Duterte’s resignation. This claim was checked and proved false by Rappler. 

The site also does not have a profile, masthead, and bylines for its articles. It has a disclaimer for each article saying it does “not own any of the soundtrack, property and rights for audio/ video.”

Rappler has observed a pattern in recent weeks where several sites also known for publishing misleading or false claims also employed the same tactic: a post with an alarming headline is attached with a video that does not support the claim.  – Miguel Imperial/Rappler.com

If you suspect a Facebook page, group, account, a website, or an article is spreading false information, let Rappler know by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.