Pro-Duterte accounts push survey showing Rody as top Senate bet in 2025

MANILA, Philippines — Different social media accounts, including known pro-Duterte internet personalities, have been amplifying survey findings that position former president Rodrigo Duterte as the top senatorial candidate in the 2025 polls. 

Data from social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle showed that at least five prominent Facebook pages that appear to be supportive of the former president used similar captions to promote the survey by private pollster Tangere, with posts appearing within hours or days of each other in a span of 10 days in August.

These posts have some of the markings of an influence operation that Philstar.com is tracking across all social media platforms, groups and spaces on the internet. Among others, the posts appear to focus on hyping the former president’s potential return to politics in the 2025 midterm polls even as he has not announced any plans of doing so.

Ten days before Tangere released the survey to the public, known pro-Duterte page “Krizette Laureta Chu” laid the groundwork by posting about the alleged widespread clamor for Duterte’s return to politics on August 1. She was also the associate and travel editor at the Manila Bulletin, according to a 2021 article by the publication.

In a post that has since garnered over 17,000 reactions and 300 shares, Chu claimed that a photo of Duterte had gone viral on Facebook with “messages of “I MISS YOU PRRD” and “BEST PRESIDENT EVER.” 

She said it showed that “people are longing for his leadership” but did not mention anything about a senatorial run. 

Less than an hour later, Facebook account “Glenn Lloyd Gregorio” shared Chu’s post to the Facebook group “DDS - DUTERTE SUPPORTERS ON TWITTER INTERNATIONAL,” which has over 2,000 members.

Around two hours later, pro-Duterte Facebook page “DT,” which has nearly a million Facebook followers, shared Chu’s post.

A day after Tangere shared its survey on Facebook on August 11 – which was exclusively reported by Manila Bulletin on the same day – two prominent pro-Duterte personalities amplified the report with positive messaging.

They are Mark Anthony Lopez and Pebbles Duque or Ma. Florinda Espenilla-Duque, the daughter of Gonzalo Duque  –