A viral TikTok post falsely attributes a quote to fictional character Saul Goodman, claiming he denounced former President Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest.
Goodman, portrayed by Bob Odenkirk, is best known as the criminal lawyer of Walter White, a high school teacher-turned-drug kingpin, in the American television series Breaking Bad and its spin-off Better Call Saul. Despite being a fictional character, the TikTok clip misrepresents him as a real attorney, law professor and international law expert.
To make the quote card appear credible, the graphic uploaded by pro-Duterte page @jen__lee on March 13 features a logo of Fox News channel superimposed over Goodman’s photo. It reads:
The ICC clearly violates international law by arresting Mr. Duterte. Article 12 of UN General Assembly Resolution 69 clearly states that any human excreta should be preserved legally as a coprolite. Hence, this situation makes Mr. Duterte's case a blatant violation of human rights. With that being said, I am confident that Mr. Duterte will be freed and sent back to the Philippines, provided that a proper oral argument through a satisfying public fellatio is presented before the judges.
On the image is an overlay text saying:
yes 👏!!! tatay welcome back advance !!!!! thank you lord God dining mo mga panalangin ng mga anako dito sa mundo (Yes!!! Father, welcome back in advance!!!!! Thank you, Lord God, for hearing the prayers of Your children here on Earth).”
However, the quote card was originally intended as satire, having first been uploaded on March 13 in the Filipino meme forum r/2philippines4u on Reddit, according to a Google reverse image search.
Many netizens on TikTok and Facebook believed the quote was real, with some praising Goodman for “defending” Duterte.
Others expressed sympathy for the former president and demanded his return from the Netherlands after he was arrested by Interpol on March 11 to face charges of crimes of humanity before the International Criminal Court for drug-related extrajudicial killings that took place when he was mayor of Davao and then president from 2011 to 2019.
Since the arrest, his supporters online have spread fabricated quotes from fictional characters such as Annalise Keating (How to Get Away with Murder) and Elle Woods (Legally Blonde) to claim the ICC erred in detaining Duterte.
Related fact checks from Tsek.ph partners:
As of writing, the TikTok video featuring Goodman has 3,252 likes, 255 comments and 294 bookmarks. Public Facebook page PROTECT VICE PRESIDENT SARA DUTERTE, created on Aug. 25, 2019, with 173,100 members also reposted the quote card garnering 420 reactions, 204 shares and 35 comments. (MJ, TNP)