FACT CHECK: Screenshot of news report is altered, shows fake drug war ‘victim’

2026-02-24 - 10:03

Claim: A victim of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, who was featured in a television report, is still alive, as proven by a video he posted debunking his supposed death. Rating: FALSE Why we fact-checked this: Several posts bearing the false claim have been circulating on Facebook, with the most popular one garnering 2.7 million views and 18,000 shares. The page spreading the claim is a personal account with 341,000 followers, and its video was shared by former broadcaster Jay Sonza, whose posts Rappler has previously fact-checked. The viral posts feature a screenshot of a television news report showing Sheerah Escudero holding up an alleged photo of her brother, a victim of the drug war. Overlaid on the screenshot is a video of the same man, who says in Bisaya that he is still alive and has only been working abroad. Text overlaid on the video accused the families of drug war victims of being “bayaran” (paid hacks) and of supposedly planting evidence to implicate former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is currently facing charges of crimes against humanity for the drug war killings. Some variations of