[DECODED] Duterte social media army very much alive, roars to defend embattled Sara Duterte

Vice President Sara Duterte has been investigated for her alleged misuse of confidential funds and slapped with impeachment complaints, causing a drop in her approval ratings. But in the Duterte multiverse, she’s in top fighting form and unscathed.

The Vice President’s support base on Facebook is fueled by networks of old and new players that are creating conversations about corruption and incompetence under the Marcos government, and framing her as a tough leader who is being unfairly persecuted. 

Among the old players from her father’s past campaign and presidency is the official Facebook page of Rodrigo Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP), which has been pushing for calls to protect the Vice President. A new player that has been sharing hyper-partisan commentary favoring the Dutertes is OPTIC Politics, which was created only in March 2024.

The Nerve scanned Facebook mentions of Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. from November to December 2024 to see how conversations surrounding the Vice President unfolded online. The two-month period was marked by major news stories, which triggered a slew of Facebook posts that amplified anti-Marcos attacks from the Dutertes themselves and propaganda tactics that worked for pro-Duterte campaigns in the past.

In between facing congressional probes and threatening to kill Marcos, the Vice President has had months of chaos and drama. But her sticky supporter base on social media showed — and is showing — no signs of slowing down.

The Duterte vs. Marcos saga

Things have gotten messy between the President and Vice President, ever since Duterte left the Marcos Cabinet in June 2024. This, despite Marcos and Duterte having run on a campaign of unity in 2022.

Duterte and Marcos, who both come from notorious dynasties, have a lot in common. For one, they have exploited online platforms and sophisticated propaganda campaigns for their political goals.

Rodrigo Duterte, Sara’s father, ran on a volunteer-driven social media campaign in 2016 and relied on prominent blogger-propagandists to act as “crisis managers” during his term. The Marcoses, on the other hand, used disinformation and coordinated amplification to whitewash their reputation tarnished by human rights abuses during Martial Law. 

It’s a battle between the bosses of the Philippine propaganda machine. 

At this point, though, the Duterte network seems to have the upper hand in dominating the discussion on Facebook.

Accounts and pages peppered their posts with emojis like green hearts, eagles, and the Duterte closed fist sign. Some posts in support of Duterte quoted her father when he said, “I am not a Filipino for nothing.”

Calls to protect Duterte spiked after she held a press briefing in the wee hours of November 23, 2024. The Vice President warned that if she got killed, so will Marcos, his wife Liza, and Speaker Martin Romualdez. 

There was another spike in “Protect VP Sara” posts following the filing of the first two impeachment complaints against her.

These posts aim to portray the Vice President as an indestructible, larger-than-life leader who doesn’t back down from a fight, and can withstand political persecution. She is also framed as a patriotic leader who wants what’s best for the Philippines, the reason, these posts say, why Filipinos should support her in her feud against the Marcoses.

Via Facebook, Duterte supporters organized various rallies and caravans for the Vice President, and mobilized in several areas including EDSA, Davao City, and Tokyo.

Marcos network: Not as aggressive

Did the Marcos network counter this? There’s some pushback from them, although it is much smaller and not as aggressive as the Duterte network on Facebook. 

Marcos has taken a more diplomatic approach toward the feud, although he responded to the Vice President’s death threat without explicitly name-dropping her.

Just as there were calls to protect the Vice President, Marcos supporters also amplified calls to protect the President using the hashtag #ProtectPBBM. However, “Protect PBBM” posts were outnumbered by “Protect VP Sara” posts shared during the two-month period, as there were nearly twice as many calls to protect the Vice President.

These pro-Marcos posts were also mostly posted by the same Facebook page, aptly named Protect PBBM. Of all posts in the dataset that included calls to protect the President, the Protect PBBM Facebook page took up 68.5% of them.

This Facebook page has consistently shared pro-Marcos content since it was created in July 2021. It changed its name to “Protect PBBM” only in late January 2024, shortly after Davao Mayor Baste Duterte called on Marcos to resign.

Attacking Marcos and Romualdez

Apart from defending and throwing their support behind the Vice President, Duterte supporters have also attacked Marcos and his allies, specifically his cousin Romualdez. These accounts and pages echo the Dutertes’ statements and criticisms against the President and the Speaker.

For instance, one way pro-Duterte actors attack the President is by framing him as a drug addict, which parrots the elder Duterte’s previous statements. The Vice President also said she “[agreed] with the assumption” due to Marcos’ refusal to take a drug test.

Pro-Duterte users often called Marcos “bangag” or high, or used variations of “polvoron,” which is a white and powdery Filipino snack. Previously, Marcos had also fallen victim to a deepfake that claimed to show the President supposedly taking cocaine.

It was also common for users to validate the former president’s statement that Marcos is a “weak leader.” Such posts aimed to portray Marcos as incompetent and unfit for the presidency.

As for Romualdez, he was frequently attacked by Duterte supporters who used variations of “tambaloslos,” a Visayan term for a greedy, large-mouthed mythical creature who leads people astray. This came after Duterte herself used the term to indirectly describe the Speaker.

Apart from parroting statements of the Dutertes, accounts and pages also discredited the House committee that, in late 2024, investigated former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. The House of Representatives later recommended he should be charged for crimes against humanity. 

It was common for Duterte supporters to undermine the credibility of the quad comm, using terms like “huwad (false) comm” or “tuwad (upside-down) comm.”

Old and new players

Prominent Facebook pages and groups have also helped drum up support for the Dutertes using old tactics from the past.

The official page of Duterte’s party, PDP, is among the top-performing pro-Duterte actors calling to protect Vice President Sara. Apart from hurling attacks toward Marcos, the PDP Facebook page has also targeted ACT Teachers Representative France Castro.

Castro, who is from the Makabayan bloc, is among the lawmakers who grilled the Vice President over her budget. During the budget hearing, Duterte attacked Castro by bringing up her child abuse conviction, which is under appeal. 

One of PDP’s top posts in the dataset described Castro as a “convicted criminal” and questioned why she was still sitting in Congress. Under the Duterte administration, propaganda networks were notorious for attacking activists and left-leaning groups and leaders.

New players have also entered the Duterte propaganda scene. The Facebook page OPTIC Politics, which claims to provide “in-depth editorial analysis & commentaries on political dynamics,” was created only in March 2024, and is managed by a Canada-based user. As of writing, the page has over 23,000 likes and 61,000 followers.

In the dataset analyzed by The Nerve, OPTIC Politics’ top posts were hyper-partisan commentary in favor of the Dutertes, which attacked their critics and deflected the issue of the drug war investigation. 

For instance, one of OPTIC Politics’ posts in late December claimed the Commission on Audit found that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) had P20.3 billion in disbursements without proper documentation. Only the Daily Tribune, whose editorials and opinion pieces have featured pro-Duterte narratives and figures, echoed this unverified claim.

The Facebook post, which has over 5,700 shares, attacked the quad committee and Romualdez for “obsessively targeting former president Rodrigo Duterte and his family,” and said they should instead focus on “critical national issues” like the supposed DPWH scandal.

These posts used strongly-worded, intellectual, academic language, similar to how propagandist-blogger Sass Sasot created pseudo-intellectual content to appeal to the upper classes. Pseudo experts and “think tanks” who are pro-Duterte have also pushed pro-China propaganda using technical language and flaunting supposed academic credentials.

Will the Vice President’s loyal base online be strong enough to keep her approval numbers from falling and make her formidable until 2028? — with reports from Dylan Salcedo and Sean dela Cruz/Rappler.com

Decoded is a Rappler series that explores the challenges and opportunities that come with living in transformative times. It is produced by The Nerve, a data forensics company that enables changemakers to navigate real-world trends and issues through narrative & network investigations. Taking the best of human and machine, we enable partners to unlock powerful insights that shape informed decisions. Composed of a team of data scientists, strategists, award-winning storytellers, and designers, the company is on a mission to deliver data with real-world impact.