Pro-Duterte Facebook pages and YouTube channels used real events and legal developments to cast the Senate as a chamber under siege and to defend Sen. Bato dela Rosa from an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.
A Philstar.com review of 14 Facebook posts and 12 YouTube videos from six channels, published between May 11 and May 29, found that accounts with content favorable to former President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies rarely fabricated events outright. Instead, they took real developments – including a Supreme Court ruling to a security lockdown at the Senate complex – and spun them to support claims of political persecution against Duterte’s allies.
These narratives spread through similarly worded Facebook posts, livestreams and YouTube commentary videos. Many reused statements from politicians, news reports and public officials, then added hyperpartisan political interpretations of their own.
Three narratives stood out during Philstar.com’s monitoring period:
That Dela Rosa could not be arrested without a Philippine court-issued warrant;
That the Senate itself was under attack; and
That the chamber had become the country’s “last line of defense” against threats to democracy.
How the narratives spread
Philstar.com monitored content published after Dela Rosa resurfaced on May 11 and continued through the events before, during and after the May 13 lockdown of the Senate complex.
The review found that online creators often followed a similar pattern.
First, they used an actual news event or statement from a public official. These included remarks from senators, developments involving the ICC warrant, Senate security incidents and statements from Dela Rosa’s legal team.
The second step was changing the interpretation of those events.
Legal disputes over jurisdiction and arrest procedures were reframed as attacks on Philippine sovereignty. Security measures at the Senate were presented as evidence that the institution itself was under threat. Statements about legislative independence were expanded into claims that the Senate was the final institution protecting Duterte allies from political persecution.
The final step was repetition. Similar messages appeared across multiple pages and channels, often within hours or days of major developments.
Rather than producing original reporting, many of the videos and posts relied on clips from mainstream news coverage, political speeches, and press conferences before adding commentary that pushed a specific political interpretation.
Narrative 1: ‘A local court warrant is needed’
One of the earliest narratives centered on the claim that Philippine authorities could not arrest Dela Rosa unless a local court first issued a warrant.
The message emerged from statements made by then-Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano between May 11 and May 13, as discussions intensified over the ICC warrant and the government’s possible actions.
The claim was later repeated by several pro-Duterte Facebook pages and YouTube channels.
Philstar.com identified 12 Facebook posts advancing this theme, including posts from KaChizmaze, Booc TVs (later renamed Onlayao TVs), and Lenny Quirz.
KaChizmaze, which had around 13,000 followers, and Booc TVs, which had around 12,000 followers, published similar posts featuring an image of Dela Rosa saluting.
Both posts claimed that Philippine sovereignty and constitutional protections prevented foreign authorities from arresting or surrendering a Filipino citizen without domestic legal action.