VERA Files
A YouTube video used altered clips from an air show to claim that the Philippines has tested its fighter aircraft supposedly purchased from Sweden. This is not true.
Uploaded on Sept. 29, the one-minute and 44-second video shows three fighter jets doing maneuvers and firing flares. Its thumbnail bearing a “breaking news” label featured the aircraft with images of the Philippine flags added. It carried the text:
“PILIPINAS FIGHTER JET BUMANAT NA (PHILIPPINES FIGHTER JET HAS GONE ALL OUT!)”
The text in the video further claimed that the jets, supposedly hidden from the public, were bought from Sweden.
This is false. The original clip shows only one U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor participating in the Cleveland National Air Show 2023 held last September.
Clips of the lone F-22 Raptor during a tactical demonstration were duplicated to make it appear that there were three jets.
Note: Click on the photo to view its original source
American aerospace company Lockheed Martin manufactures F-22 Raptors. A United States law bans the sale of the aircraft to any foreign government.
Last August, Sweden’s Ambassador to the Philippines Annika Thunborg offered the Saab JAS 39 “Gripen” multirole fighter aircraft for the Philippine Air Force’s (PAF) modernization during a call on Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro.
The false video was uploaded more than a week after the U.S. donated a Cessna C-208B Grand Caravan surveillance aircraft to the PAF at Clark Air Base in Pampanga.
Previously flagged YouTube channel Ella Vloggs (created on Feb. 15, 2019) uploaded the video that has 35,072 views as of writing.
VERA Files Fact Check has debunked other military-related disinformation spread by this channel which currently has 305,000 subscribers. (Read NO bomber plane ‘gift’ from U.S.)
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