FACT CHECK: PNP official did not say arresting Dela Rosa is ‘treachery’

Detailed summary

Unrelated audio was superimposed on footage from an October 30 briefing to make it appear that PNP deputy chief Police Lieutenant General Wilson Joseph Lopez made the statement

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Claim: Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy chief Police Lieutenant General Wilson Joseph Lopez said that dying for the International Criminal Court (ICC) constitutes treachery, and that arresting Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa under a warrant issued by a foreign body amounts to a betrayal of fellow Filipinos.

Why we fact-checked this: Three Facebook reels posted on November 5 and 6 show Lopez delivering a statement during a press briefing.

In it, Lopez allegedly said: “Mamatay kayo para sa bayan, iyan ay kabayanihan. Pero mamatay kayo para sa ICC, iyan ay katraydoran. Tandaan ninyo, ang pag-aresto kay Senator Bato gamit ang warrant ng dayuhan, iyan ay katraydoran sa kapwa Pilipino. At tatatak yan sa history ng kapulisan at kasundalohan at magiging masama kayo sa paningin ng bawat Pilipino.”

(If you die for the country, that is heroism. But if you die for the ICC, that is treachery. Remember, arresting Senator Bato under a foreign warrant is treachery against fellow Filipinos. That will remain in the history of the police and military, and every Filipino will see you in a bad light.)

As of writing, the three videos garnered a combined 810,000 views, over 26,000 reactions, and nearly 2,400 shares, with one video alone receiving more than 23,000 reactions.

The videos surfaced amid the ongoing manhunt for Dela Rosa, the subject of an ICC arrest warrant.

The facts: No credible report or official record indicates that Lopez or any other police official made the remarks heard in the video. While the video footage itself is authentic, the audio does not correspond to Lopez’s actual statements and appears to have been superimposed to falsely suggest that the police official made those remarks.

The video clip is from an October 30 press conference at Camp Crame, where Lopez — who heads the task force to locate and arrest Dela Rosa — spoke to the media after the senator’s deadline to surrender expired.

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