FALSE: Hollywood artists praise Duterte on Twitter

Claim: Jackie Chan, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber tweeted praise for President Rodrigo Duterte. 

The claim was made by Facebook user Mike Dumasin on Monday, May 25, on the public group “DDS-PHILIPPINES(DUTERTE DIEHARD SUPPORTERS).”

His post said: “Paniguradong iiyak mga dilawan dito!! Trending ngayon si Pangulong Duterte sa Twitter dahil sa tweets ng mga Hollywood artists tungkol sa kanya!

“Kung may twitter kayo, makikita nyo agad ang mga ito. Sobrang dami kaya pili lang na screenshot ko. Napakahusay talaga ni Duterte!”

(Supporters of the opposition will surely cry over this!! President Duterte is trending on Twitter because of Hollywood artists’ tweets about him! If you have Twitter, you will see these right away. There are so many, that’s why I only posted a few screenshots. Duterte is really excellent!)

Attached are 4 screenshots of supposed tweets by Chan, Lady Gaga, Swift, and Bieber. 

The tweet by Chan was dated April 3 and had a photo of him with President Duterte and Senator Bong Go. It said: “Finally met President Duterte and Senator Bong Go! Philippines is so lucky to have them as leaders!”

The tweet by Lady Gaga was dated May 23 and it included a photo of her with Ellen DeGeneres. She said: “Flaunting the ‘Duterte Fist’ sign with [Ellen DeGeneres]. Hope Duterte comes to my Philippine concert next year!”

Swift’s tweet was dated March 17. She said, “Not many people know this but my song ‘Bad Blood’ was inspired by the Philippines’ president, Rodrigo Duterte. #DDS.”

Bieber’s tweet was dated May 14 and said, “I used to dislike Mr Duterte… but now I fully support him after seeing how successful Philippines is now!”

Dumasin’s post has received 132 reactions, 13 comments, and 77 shares as of posting. The group DDS-PHILIPPINES(DUTERTE DIEHARD SUPPORTERS) has 5,364 members as of Friday, May 29.

Rappler’s social media team spotted this post on Facebook. 

Rating: FALSE

The facts: There is no proof that Chan, Lady Gaga, Swift, and Bieber tweeted about President Duterte on the dates mentioned or on any other date.

Chan did meet Duterte and Go on August 30, 2019, when the two visited China. The photo in the supposed tweet is from this 2019 meeting. Running the photo through reverse image search only returns versions published by news websites and fan accounts, not anything coming from Chan’s official Twitter account.

Lady Gaga also did not tweet about Duterte on the date mentioned or on any other date. Her photo with DeGeneres is from an April 28, 2011 performance of her song “Judas” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The two did not talk about Duterte. At the time, Duterte was not yet president. He was vice mayor of Davao City. 

There are no tweets or official reports that attribute the quotes in the supposed tweets to these personalities. 

Facebook user Mike Dumasin does not have any publicly available posts on his wall before 2020 and does not have anything listed in the “about” section of his profile. 

While his wall says he is “Davaoeño” and a “proud DDS since 2016,” all of his public posts appeared to have been published only in 2020.  Both posts are photos: the first is an image of the Philippines posted on May 22 and the second is an image of President Duterte with the text “100% we support” published on May 27. 

Data captured by Rappler’s Sharktank from public groups it has been monitoring show that he has one post each to 4 different Duterte fan groups. Aside from the post in the claim, he posted the same set of fake tweets on May 26 on the group “Rody Duterte Solid” where it’s been shared 125 times. He also posted the supposed tweet by Lady Gaga on May 27 on the group “Solid Duterte Supporters Worldwide.” 

He also posted a list of politicians and celebrities on the group “PRES.RODRIGO ROA DUTERTE SOLID SUPPORTER GROUP…(PRRDSSG)” on May 25, saying that if they all had seats in government, no Filipino would go hungry. – Vernise L Tantuco/Rappler.com

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