FACT CHECK: No Supreme Court arrest warrant for Marcos
Claim: The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a warrant of arrest for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. following a testimony made by Vice President Sara Duterte.
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: The claim was made in a video posted on November 12 which has garnered 30,283 views, 1,300 likes, and 196 comments as of writing.
The video starts with a narrator saying, “Nag-warrant of arrest ang Korte Suprema laban kay Pangulong Kuting Jr. matapos tumestigo si Bise Presidente Inday Sara Duterte sa kasong kinakaharap ng Pangulo.”
(The Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for President Kuting Jr. after Vice President Sara Duterte testified in the case currently faced by the President.)
The alias “Pangulong Kuting Jr,” referring to Marcos, has been used by the pro-Duterte vlogger Maharlika since 2023.
The facts: The SC has not issued an arrest warrant for Marcos, who enjoys immunity from suit during his term as a sitting president.
According to retired SC senior associate justice Antonio Carpio, the President “enjoys immunity from suit and cannot be investigated or prosecuted for any criminal offense” while he remains in office. The High Court affirmed this in its decisions in De Lima v. Duterte and David v. Macapagal-Arroyo.
The video also never details the alleged case against Marcos and Duterte’s supposed testimony. Instead, it merely showed a clip from a vlogger criticizing the Department of Justice’s actions against doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy.
Rappler has previously debunked similar claims:
- FACT CHECK: Marcos not arrested over illegal drugs
- FACT CHECK: No Supreme Court subpoena issued to Marcos
Duterte and Marcos: The video was uploaded amid the ongoing rift between Marcos and Duterte, with the Vice President increasingly becoming more vocal in her tirades against Marcos.
On November 23, Duterte appeared before a midnight press briefing where she took a swipe at Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez. During the briefing, Duterte said that she had arranged the assassination of Marcos, the First Lady, and Romualdez, in the event that she is killed. (READ: From legal liabilities to disbarment: Gov’t lists consequences of VP Duterte’s Zoom threats)
Duterte made the threat after a House panel ordered the transfer of her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, to a women’s correctional facility in Mandaluyong. Lopez was placed in detention after she was cited in contempt for her evasive answers during a probe into Duterte’s alleged misuse of funds, which included irregularities in the Office of the Vice President’s confidential fund disbursements for 2022 and 2023 and allegations of bribery when she was education secretary.
Marcos condemned Duterte’s threat, calling her words “disturbing.” Malacañang said the Presidential Security Command had heightened its security protocols and will act on the Vice President’s “active threat.” – Ramon Franco Verano/Rappler.com
Ramon Franco Verano is a graduate of Rappler’s volunteer program. He is a fourth year History student at the University of Santo Tomas. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.
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