FACT CHECK: No reports of Duterte ‘apology’ to Marcos; photo is AI-generated

Claim: Former president Rodrigo Duterte wants to settle the conflict with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and apologize for the “many sins” he committed against Marcos.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The TikTok video containing the claim has 104,400 views, 1,649 likes, 195 comments, and 89 shares as of writing. It was posted by an account posing as a news outlet, which claims to be “The Philippines’ 24/7 source for breaking news and live updates.”

Text overlaid on the video reads: “Duterte nais humingi ng kapatawaran kay Pangulong Marcos Jr.”

(Rodrigo Duterte wants to ask forgiveness from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.)

The caption in the post states: “Umiikot ang mga ulat na si dating Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte ay maaaring naghahangad ng pag-uusap o paghingi ng tawad kay Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Sabi ng tagapagsalita ni Duterte sa The Hague, marami na daw syang kasalanan na nagawa kay PBBM kaya naman nais nyang humingi ng kapatawaran dito. Ayaw nyang lumalim ng sobra ang kanilang hidwaan kaya naman makikipag-ayos na sya.”

(Reports are circulating that former president Rodrigo Duterte may be seeking a conversation or he may want to ask forgiveness from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. According to Duterte’s spokesperson in The Hague, he allegedly feels that he has committed many wrongs against Marcos and therefore wants to apologize. He does not want their conflict to escalate further, so he intends to reconcile.)

Several social media users believed the claim, with some posting messages of support for Duterte and saying he does not need to “apologize” to Marcos.

The facts: There is no evidence that Duterte asked for forgiveness from Marcos; no news report, official statement, photo, or video confirms this, and all reliable coverage of his detention at the International Criminal Court (ICC) only mentions visits from family, lawyers, and officials, as well as updates around his crimes against humanity case.

Analysis of the screenshot using the AI detection tools Sight Engine and Hive Moderation shows that the image is highly likely to be AI-generated. Sight Engine’s analysis found the image to be 98% likely AI-generated, with 84% probability of the use of GPT-based diffusion models. 

Meanwhile, Hive Moderation’s results show the image is 98.4% likely to be an AI-generated image, with 0% probability of being a deepfake, and 98.7% likelihood of the use of the GPTImage1.5 generation model.

ICC detention: Since his arrest on March 11, 2025, Duterte has been detained at the ICC detention facility in Scheveningen, The Hague, Netherlands, to face charges of crimes against humanity linked to his bloody war on drugs. 

On March 6, 2026, a five-judge ICC appeals chamber unanimously rejected a new defense request to temporarily release Duterte.

The defense had argued for fairness of proceedings related to Duterte’s health. Earlier, Duterte’s team argued that the pre-trial chamber abused its discretion when it refused to issue a new report that would discuss how the former president’s alleged cognitive impairment would impact the risks cited by the court as a basis for his continued detention.

The pre-trial chamber had ruled Duterte fit for pre-trial after an independent medical panel found no impairment beyond normal aging. The appeals judges noted no new evidence or circumstances justified altering Duterte’s detention under Article 60(3) of the Rome Statute.

The ICC pre-trial chamber now has 60 days from February 27 — the last day of his pre-trial hearing — to decide whether to move Duterte into full trial proceedings, while his defense team awaits a separate decision on their ongoing appeal challenging ICC jurisdiction. – Marjuice Destinado/Rappler.com

Marjuice Destinado is a senior political science student at Cebu Normal University (CNU) and an alumna of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship of Rappler for 2025.