Importance Score:
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Philippine Supreme Court Did Not Dismiss Sara Duterte Impeachment Case, Debunking Social Media Misinformation
Claims circulating on social media falsely assert that the Philippine Supreme Court dismissed the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte. These misleading posts misrepresent a news report concerning South Korea’s constitutional court and the reinstatement of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo amidst political unrest. The assertions are untrue; the Supreme Court in the Philippines has made no such ruling regarding the Vice President’s impeachment.
False Claims on Social Media Platforms
A Tagalog-language caption overlaid on a Facebook video shared on March 26, 2025, falsely declares, “Breaking News VP Sara has won.”
The caption further alleges: “The Supreme Court has junked the impeachment complaint against VP Sarah (sic).”
The video clip features a news anchor stating that “five out of eight magistrates” agreed to reject an impeachment case against an unnamed public official.
Screenshot of the false post, taken on April 4, 2025
Vice President Duterte faced impeachment by the House of Representatives in early February, accused of “violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes.”
Her family is currently engaged in a political rift with President Ferdinand Marcos, formerly an ally and Duterte’s running mate during their successful 2022 presidential campaign.
Her Senate trial is scheduled to follow the May 12 midterm elections, which will determine the composition of senators serving as jurors. A conviction could result in the Vice President being disqualified from holding public office.
Legal representatives supporting Duterte have petitioned the Supreme Court to dismiss the impeachment case and halt Senate trial proceedings, arguing procedural irregularities and lack of due process in the impeachment’s progression (archived link).
However, as of April 7, no official announcements have been made by the court regarding a decision.
Similar inaccurate claims have also been disseminated on TikTok and previously addressed by the Philippine fact-checking organization Vera Files (archived link).
Context of the Misinformation: South Korea Case
Reverse image searches conducted on Google, utilizing keyframes from the misrepresented video, traced its origin to the official YouTube channel of local broadcaster Net25, published on March 25, 2025 (archived link).
The clip originates from the network’s public affairs program “Sa Ganang Mamamayan,” translating to “For the Citizen.”
Crucially, sections of the broadcast omitted from misleading social media posts reveal the anchor identifying the subject of the report as South Korea’s Prime Minister, Han Duck-soo—not Vice President Duterte.
Han assumed the role of acting leader of South Korea in December 2024, following the impeachment of then-President Yoon Suk Yeol after a brief period of martial law (archived link).
Han himself was also impeached, criticized by the opposition for allegedly failing to enact special bills to investigate Yoon. However, South Korea’s constitutional court overturned his impeachment, reinstating him as acting president (archived link).
While the news anchor initially misidentified the South Korean constitutional court as the “supreme court,” he later corrected this error.
The anchor clarified: “The constitutional court of South Korea has rejected the impeachment complaint against Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo last Monday, yesterday.”
Screenshot of the false post (L) and the Net25 video on YouTube
Philippine Supreme Court Composition
The Philippine Supreme Court is actually composed of 15 justices, not eight as mentioned in the misrepresented clip. The Supreme Court may convene en banc or in divisions of three, five, or seven justices, depending on the justices’ judgment (archived link).
AFP has previously fact-checked other instances of misinformation concerning Duterte’s impeachment.
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