After government investigators tried in May 2026 to arrest Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, chief enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's deadly drug war, posts shared an AI-generated image falsely claiming it showed one of his fellow lawmakers drinking with law enforcement agents and that it was proof that he helped plot Dela Rosa's arrest. The picture contains visual errors, which are marks of AI-generated images, while an analysis using an OpenAI verification tool showed it was fabricated.
"Sotto with NBI," says overlaid text on an image shared on TikTok on May 17 that purportedly showed former Senate president Vicente Sotto III sharing drinks with agents from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
The image has swept across Facebook, TikTok and Instagram since at least May 12, a day after Dela Rosa dodged NBI agents who attempted to serve an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) inside the Senate building.
Dela Rosa is wanted on charges of the crime against humanity of murder for his role in ex-leader Rodrigo Duterte's brutal war on drugs campaign which killed thousands, according to rights groups (archived link).
Sotto used to head the Senate, but he was replaced after Dela Rosa — who reappeared after almost six months of absence — voted with 12 other lawmakers to replace him on May 11 with an ally of Duterte (archived link).
The ex-police chief went back into hiding following gunfire between Senate security and agents on May 14. The government went on to order his arrest a week later, after the Supreme Court denied his bid for a temporary restraining order on executing the ICC warrant (archived link).
According to local news reports, Dela Rosa's supporters blamed Sotto for allowing agents inside the legislature's compound, which resulted in a dramatic chase up the Senate stairs with the wanted lawmaker (archived here and here).
Sotto said during a Senate session on May 12 that he thought it was just part of the standard procedure of the NBI informing the Senate leadership about the issuance of an arrest warrant against a member of the body (archived link).
He and the NBI did not respond to AFP requests for comment.
Comments online show users appeared to believe the picture is proof that Sotto conspired with the country's intelligence unit to capture Dela Rosa.
"[Sotto] didn't know anything but he hung out with them and fed them?" said one.
"Looks like you're part of the planning to arrest your fellow senator. Have you no shame?" wrote another.
But an analysis shows the image is not authentic and was created with AI tools.
AFP uploaded the image to OpenAI's image verification website, which found an embedded SynthID watermark, confirming it was made with the tech giant's AI tools (archived link).
The image also contains errors commonly seen in AI-generated visuals, including the finger on the man's hand on the left side of the table looking unusually bent and the two men at the centre appearing to have distorted arms.
The face of Sotto in the fabricated image looks different from his face in photos posted on his official Facebook page in May 2026 (archived link).
AFP has debunked AI-generated images used to spread disinformation on politics and governance in the Philippines.
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