[DECODED] 3 playbook tactics that persist a year after Duterte’s arrest

For those who have been following Decoded for a while now, you may remember a piece we wrote about how, in March 2025, online supporters made a victim of Duterte after his ICC arrest over crimes against humanity.

Exactly a year has passed since the arrest. Here’s what has happened so far: 

• Pre-trial proceedings were supposed to start in September 2025, but Duterte’s camp had managed to postpone the proceedings by claiming that he was “not fit to stand trial.”
• Duterte’s defense team then filed an appeal based on jurisdiction, which the ICC denied in October 2025.
• Duterte lost his appeal for an interim release in November 2025, declaring him fit for pre-trial.
• The pre-trial hearings finally took place in February, but Duterte requested not to attend the proceedings, saying he is “old, tired, and frail.”

As I was listening to Duterte’s lead defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman present his arguments during the pre-trial hearings, I couldn’t help but think that I had heard many of them before — but online.

For one, Kaufman claimed that Duterte’s statements about his kill orders were taken out of context, mainly by the media, and that the former president had never killed anyone. This, despite records showing that Duterte himself had publicly admitted to it.

Kaufman framed Duterte as a popularly elected leader whose policies and actions were rooted in serving the Filipino people, suggesting that his decisions, particularly those related to the drug war, were aimed at the public good.

These were talking points that our team at The Nerve is so used to seeing every time we analyze big datasets of online conversations defending Duterte, his family, and his perceived legacy.

In the days that followed the pre-trial hearings, we’ve again noticed how these tactics were being applied to new narratives. Here are three examples of how they unfolded online:

1. Exploitation of emotions

Just as Kaufman tried to play to emotions by framing Duterte as a vulnerable man being unjustly detained, our team saw how Facebook posts exploited the recent death of a young girl in Cebu to defend Duterte’s drug war.

[READ FULL STORY HERE]

The news sparked outrage, especially because the victim was a minor. Our researcher, Christa Escudero, found that it did not take long before coordinated Facebook posts surfaced, expressing fear over the crime. Never mind that accusations of the suspect being a drug addict were still unconfirmed — the narrative was quickly framed to reinforce pro-drug-war talking points. Christa wrote all about it here.

1. Shifting blame toward human rights advocates and institutions

When Kaufman blamed the media for Duterte’s fate in the ICC, he also fired shots at academic institutions and portrayed them as part of a broader network shaping narratives and legal actions surrounding his client.

Screenshots of comments found in the posts about the death of a young girl in Cebu

This tactic can again be seen in the comments section of the posts that used the Cebu girl’s murder to defend the drug war, which ranged from blaming human rights advocates for the supposed coddling of drug users to accusing Duterte’s critics of selective outrage, saying they speak out on issues involving the former president but remain silent when other crimes occur. It’s a classic example of whataboutism.

1. Attacking EJK victims’ families to discredit their plight

False narratives undermining the families of EJK victims also resurfaced online. There were posts that cast doubt on their motives and credibility and insinuated that relatives were being funded or politically used. This shifts attention away from their testimonies and the substance of their claims.

Screenshots of posts attacking victims’ families. The left-most post shows an altered photo, making it appear that relatives were holding designer bags.

The proliferation of these narratives shows the Duterte family’s enduring influence online, still being reinforced and rewarded by the social media platforms in which falsehoods and misleading claims thrive.

As we await the pre-trial chamber’s decision on whether Duterte’s case will proceed to a full trial, recognizing these patterns becomes all the more important in navigating today’s information landscape more critically. – Rappler.com