FACT CHECK: Photo of ‘Arab gold’ Duterte statue is AI-generated

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Believing the image is real, some Filipinos commented that foreigners seemed to value the former president more than his own countrymen did

Claim: A photo shows a gold statue of detained former president Rodrigo Duterte, allegedly created by Arabs.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The TikTok video containing the claim has 964,600 views, 80,500 likes, 4,877 shares, and 3,686 comments as of writing.

Text in the video states: “Arab creating Duterte art, gawa sa gold.” (Arabs are creating Duterte art made of gold.)

Some Filipino social media users seem to believe the supposed statue is genuine, commenting, “Wow! Iba talaga si FPRRD (former President Rodrigo Duterte). Sayang lang. Ibang lahi pa ang nakaka appreciate sa kanya.” 

(Wow! FPRRD is really something else. It’s just a shame that it’s foreigners who seem to appreciate him more).

Another Filipino commented, “Mahal talaga siya ng taga-ibang bansa ngayon. Proud Filipinos talaga. Sa kanya lang nangyari ‘to sa dami ng presidents. The best…more power.”

(People from other countries really love him now. Truly proud to be a Filipino. This only happened to him among all the presidents. The best…more power.)

The facts: The AI detection tool Sight Engine examined the image from the TikTok post and concluded there is an 88% chance it was generated by AI. The analysis showed a 58% correlation with Imagen diffusion technology, 16% with GPT-4o, and 9% with Stable Diffusion.

Moreover, no news reports or official statements confirm the existence of such a statue supposedly made by Arabs. A high-profile and costly project like this would have been widely covered by mainstream media and government sources. The TikTok post only features the image and overlaid text, but provides no credible evidence to support the claim.

Monument joke: The idea of a Duterte statue is not entirely new. In fact, in March 2025, during a speech to overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong, Duterte acknowledged the possibility of being jailed over reports of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant tied to his administration’s deadly drug war. 

He then joked, “Mag-contribute kayo maski 5 dollars, 10 dollars para paglabas ko sa presohan, pagawa ‘nyo ako monumento katabi ni (Jose) Rizal.” 

(Chip in even just $5 or $10 so that when I get out of prison, you can build a monument of me next to Rizal.)

This offhand joke, however, remains just that — a joke — with no actual efforts underway to build such a monument.

Ongoing support: The TikTok post is among many others showing support for the former president, who won the 2025 Davao City mayoral election by a landslide despite being detained in The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of crimes against humanity linked to his controversial drug war.

With Duterte detained and set to face a confirmation of charges hearing in September, his son, Vice Mayor-elect Sebastian Duterte, is expected to assume the role of officer-in-charge (OIC) mayor. Should this occur, Councilor Rigo Duterte II — Duterte’s grandson and the highest-ranking candidate in the 2025 council race — could be named OIC vice mayor, subject to the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s approval. (WATCH: Can Rodrigo Duterte work as mayor from The Hague?)

Debunked: Since Duterte’s arrest, several online posts have appeared claiming widespread public support for him, featuring AI-created images of supposed monuments and statues dedicated to the former president. Rappler has fact-checked these claims:

• FACT CHECK: Image of Jackie Chan sculpting Duterte statue is AI-generated
• FACT CHECK: Photo of Duterte ‘national hero’ statue is AI-generated
• FACT CHECK: Duterte’s monument photo is AI-generated

– Marjuice Destinado/Rappler.com

Marjuice Destinado is a Rappler intern. She is also a fact-checker and researcher-writer at Explained PH. A third-year political science student at Cebu Normal University (CNU), she serves as the feature editor of Ang Suga, CNU’s official student publication.