FACT CHECK: Viral video of Sarah Discaya admitting stolen funds is AI-manipulated

Claim: Businesswoman and former Pasig City mayoral candidate Sarah Discaya admitted to pocketing funds meant for flood control projects while accusing public officials of being part of the system of corruption.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The Facebook reels video with the claim has around 11,700 likes, 1,800 comments, and 5,600 shares as of writing.

The video shows Discaya at the Senate hearing into alleged corruption in the government’s flood control projects. In the video, she admits to pocketing public funds alongside politicians as “part of the system.”

“Kawawa po talaga ang mga mamamayang Pilipino kasi ninakaw lang natin ang kaban ng bayan — pera ng taumbayan, pero tayo ang nakikinabang. Hindi ba tayo nahiya? Ang mahihirap mas lalong naghihirap kaya tama na ang pangungurakot natin,” Discaya can be heard saying in the video.

(Filipino citizens are really pitiful because we are stealing public funds — the people’s money — but we are the ones who benefit. Aren’t we ashamed? The poor become poorer, so let us stop our embezzlement.)

In another part of the video, she deflects blame for her involvement in the infrastructure corruption issue, saying public officials are also at fault: “Huwag ninyo ipakita sa publiko na malinis kayo dahil sa bawat proyekto may kapalit na porsyento para sa inyong mga opisina. Ang sistema mismo ang nagtutulak sa amin na sumunod. Kung hindi kami papayag, wala kaming makukuhang proyekto.”

(Don’t present yourselves as innocent, because with each project, your office receives a certain percentage. The system itself is forcing us to go along with it. If we don’t agree, we do not get a project.)

Users in the comment section, believing the video to be genuine, urged Discaya to reveal all she knew. Discaya was among the contractors summoned to congressional probes into the flood control controversy.

The facts: The video is manipulated. Nowhere in the September 1 and September 8 hearings of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee did Discaya make the statements attributed to her in the viral video.

Deepfake detector Resemble AI flagged the use of deepfake audio in the misleading clip. The platform analyzes audio with 90% accuracy to determine whether the content is created with AI.

While the video is AI-manipulated and presumably set to resemble the hearing held on September 1, the content echoes similar statements from the September 8 hearing, where Discaya was present with her husband, Curlee.

“Hindi naming ginusto kailanman na mapasama sa ganitong sistema pero kailangan naming magpatuloy para sa pamilya at mga empleyado,” Discaya read from page three of their sworn statement.

(We did not want to be part of this kind of system, but we needed to continue for our family and employees.)

During the Senate hearing, Discaya accused several lawmakers and engineers of receiving kickbacks in exchange for public infrastructure contracts, further explaining that their companies would not have been able to gain more projects if they did not cooperate with public officials. While the AI-manipulated video mirrored her accusations, the statements were not verbatim.

Flood control issue: The Discaya couple was investigated by the Senate after it was revealed that multiple flood projects linked to their companies were “ghost projects” — projects written and approved on paper but not implemented. (READ: Some top flood control contractors named by Marcos had links to Zaldy Co, Discayas)

During his fourth State of the Nation Address last July, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. flagged 15 contractors that cornered big-ticket flood control projects, mentioning Discaya-linked St. Timothy Construction. Attention towards the couple further heightened when a September 2024 vlog by journalist Julius Babao resurfaced, documenting the couple’s luxury cars. This video has been used in the Senate hearings.

On September 11, the Department of Public Works and Highways filed criminal complaints against Discaya, along with other contractors and former public works officials.

Amid the controversies, Marcos formed an independent commission to investigate flood control and other infrastructure projects. – Maggy de Guzman/Rappler.com

Maggy de Guzman is a Rappler volunteer. She is a fourth year communication arts student at De La Salle University Manila, where she writes for the university’s official student publication, The LaSallian.

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