At a glance

• Claim: President Rodrigo Duterte has officially declared his candidacy in the 2022 vice presidential election, according to a video uploaded on Thursday, May 27.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: Duterte has not made an official announcement of his vice presidential candidacy, as of Friday, May 28. In a briefing on Thursday, May 27, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque responded to the issue and said, “I think, I will quote the President: he leaves it to God.”
• Why we fact-checked this: The video containing the claim has over 17,000 views on Youtube as of writing.

Complete details

A video uploaded on Thursday, May 27, by Youtube channel “AMSEDEL DANCE FIT 2.0” falsely said that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had officially confirmed his candidacy in the 2022 vice presidential election.

The video is titled, “ITO ANG NAKAKAKILABOT PRES DUTERTE FINALLY TATAKBO NA VP 2022 SARA PRESIDENT MANNY NANLUMO/MARCOS” (This is shocking! President Duterte is finally running for vice president in 2022, Sara [Duterte] for president. Manny [Pacquiao] dispirited, and so is [Bongbong] Marcos!)

The video has over 17,000 views, as of writing. It was spotted via social media monitoring tool Crowdtangle.

This is false.

As of Friday, May 28, Duterte has not confirmed his rumored plans to run for vice president in the 2022 elections.

In response to queries over Duterte’s plan to seek the vice presidency, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in an online press briefing on Thursday, “I think, I will quote the President: he leaves it to God.” 

In March, some members of Duterte’s political party, PDP-Laban, signed a resolution, urging him to run for vice president in 2022. However, Senator Manny Pacquaio, the party’s acting president, quickly clarified that the public calls were not authorized by the PDP-Laban leadership.

Roque also denied this in March, and said Duterte was focused on the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

“I’ve heard the President say at one point that he’s become president already, so why would he want to become vice president? But I don’t know if there’s been any change,” Roque said in a mix of English and Filipino during a Palace news briefing on March 11. – Owenh Toledo/Rappler.com

Owenh Toledo is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.

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