In Depth: Fake ‘breaking news’ on YouTube muddle info on Senate, House power shift amid flood control mess

By Nikko A. Balbedina III, Felipe F. Salvosa II

Fake “breaking news” videos on YouTube are distorting public understanding of the leadership shake-ups in both the Senate and House of Representatives following the revelations in congressional inquiries into alleged corrupt flood-control projects.

Why it matters: The public remains glued to probes on massive corruption in flood-control projects, which have already triggered leadership changes in both the Senate and the House. This subset of disinformation that PressOne.PH calls news-cycle disinformation could potentially distort how people remember these events and could shape perceptions ahead of the crucial presidential election in 2028.

What we know so far: News-cycle disinformation involves fabricated claims that latch on to an unfolding news event, presenting themselves as breaking updates within the same cycle (or immediately after), and reporting false, premature, or implausible outcomes.

• Rapid uploads overwhelm verification efforts, letting fake claims circulate long before journalists and fact-checkers can debunk them.
  
• These fake endpoints can potentially plant lasting false impressions of how events unfolded.

Catch up quick: The two chambers of Congress launched probes into alleged anomalies in flood-control projects, following President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address where he disclosed that only 15 contractors have cornered huge contracts with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). 

• The Senate’s probe intensified after contractor couple Pacifico and Sarah Discaya linked to flood control anomalies a list of congressmen, including then-House speaker Martin Romualdez. The lawmakers were behind multi-billion peso kickback schemes, they claimed.
• Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva were implicated in alleged DPWH corruption, while then-Senate president Chiz Escudero was named in a House hearing as having received millions in campaign funds from a contractor.

What we found: PressOne.PH has been tracking several YouTube channels involved in news-cycle disinformation since July 2025 following Marcos Jr. ‘s address, where he mandated an audit of all flood control projects.

• These YouTube channels are creating fake “breaking news” videos about Senate and House leadership changes during the flood control probe.
• PressOne.PH compiled a database of more than 300 videos from four YouTube channels that actively spread news-cycle disinformation. 
• These channels upload at least one video daily, with views ranging from 200 to almost a million.

Zoom in: These YouTube channels adhere to a strategic pattern of disseminating their content to try to emulate and divert viewership from channels that provide legitimate news updates.

• With sensationalist, buzzword-filled names like “Viral TV,” “TRENDING PINAS NEWS,” and “REACTION TV PH,” these channels mimic legitimate news outlets and attract maximum attention.
• The videos uploaded by these channels employ the same strategy, and on the surface, they can be described as follows:

• • Eighty-one percent of collected and analyzed YouTube videos use the phrase “KAKAPASOK LANG” (Just in) in their titles, imitating actual breaking news.

• • Thumbnails are collages of the faces of involved individuals, often selected or altered to show exaggerated expressions. This technique aims to capture viewer attention by capitalizing on a comedic or dramatic element.

• • Large, brightly colored text is typically emblazoned across the thumbnail, presenting false narratives and capturing the attention of its viewers. 

• • These videos also tend to use derogatory nicknames to refer to government officials involved in the story.

The Fake: The supposed news updates posted by these YouTube channels are always false, absurd, and repetitive, making them difficult and annoying to monitor and fact-check. Although the channels monitored produced videos that differ in quality, suggesting their independence from each other, the false narratives they disseminate follow a consistent pattern:

• Most of the videos monitored reported a false outcome that involved personalities who have been arrested or government officials who have either been fired or have resigned from their posts. 

• • In at least 15 videos monitored, then-Senate president Escudero was falsely reported to have been arrested, fired or to have resigned from the Senate presidency long ahead of his actual exit from the post on Sep. 8, 2025

• • His removal from the Senate presidency was first alluded to in July 30, 2025 in connection with Senate deliberations on the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte at the time, and was repeated multiple times during the flood-control fiasco.

• • Romualdez has been repeatedly targeted by this disinformation campaign as well, with false reports claiming his supposed dismissal, resignation, or arrest and imprisonment on at least 25 occasions between July 28 and his official ouster as house speaker on Sept. 17.

• • False reports of the indictment of the Discayas have also been made as early as Aug. 23, 2025. 

• These channels invent narratives and inflate minor disagreements into heated debates, deliberately crafting an image of intellectual superiority for one political figure over another.

• • Exaggerated terms such as “sinabon” (soaped), “binakbakan” (beaten up), “nalintikan” (struck as if by lightning), and “dinurog” (crushed) have been employed to inflate the speaking times of certain individuals, fabricating an impression of their supposed oratorical prowess.

• • In roughly 70 of the 300 collected and studied videos, neophyte senator Rodante Marcoleta was misrepresented to have repeatedly schooled fellow senators in debate, shaping his image as a maverick or a force in the senate. 

• Disinformation peddled by these channels also includes false reports of court decisions and verdicts that have not yet been rendered, potentially influencing public opinion on legal outcomes.

   

  • Even before the impeachment case against Duterte was officially shelved on Aug. 9, 2025, these YouTube channels had consistently misreported its demise, falsely attributing it to Supreme Court intervention.

     

  • The same pattern was seen in the case of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who was falsely reported to have been granted interim release by the International Criminal Court or to have had the case against him dismissed altogether.

• False narratives extend into the realm of the absurd, with certain reports claiming supposed romantic entanglements between political figures.

• • Several videos erroneously reported a purported clandestine marriage between Duterte and Escudero, along with the christening of their alleged offspring.
  • Alleged marital dissolutions between politicians and their spouses have also been erroneously reported, leveraging the marketability of celebrity news, such as the one that supposedly happened between actor-turned-congressman Arjo Atayde and noontime show host Maine Mendoza.

Why it works: This subset of disinformation can be effective because it masterfully exploits the intersection of human psychology and the urgency of social media with the inherent slowness of official processes.

• While legitimate journalists wait for official confirmation, these disinformation channels fill the gap by providing the public with a sense of false closure in real time by announcing fake arrests, resignations, or court verdicts.

• At times, it appears that these disinformation channels predict outcomes, and when those predictions seem to come true, they gain false credibility as an alternative news source for an update-hungry public.

The bottom line: News-cycle disinformation exploits the gap between the public’s intense demand for instant updates during a major news event and the silence inherent in slow, official processes like congressional probes or court actions.

• The ultimate goal of this tactic is to outpace verification efforts and hijack the news cycle in an attempt to possibly maximize earnings in views and generate false legitimacy.

• The primary danger is its potential to plant lasting false memories about how critical events actually unfolded, distorting the public’s understanding of reality.

• This distortion matters because it can shape public perception long after the events have concluded, influencing future outcomes like the 2028 presidential election. 

with reports from Daniela Solis & Ysabel Javier.

This report was made possible by an Internews project to build the capacity of news organizations in understanding disinformation and influence operations in the Philippines.