VERA Files
A video on YouTube is erroneously claiming that both the United States (U.S.) and the Philippines have declared that they will “crush” China, with the former allegedly sending warships to attack China. This is not true.
On Jan. 8, a YouTube channel published the video that bore the untrue headline:
“KAKAPASOK LANG BUONG MUNDO UMALARMA na! AMERIKA at PILIPINAS NAGDEKLARA NA DUDURUGIN na ang CHINA?
(Just in, the whole world is alarmed! The U.S. and the Philippines declared that they will crush China?)”
On the video’s thumbnail, an arrow can be seen pointing at a photo featuring a fleet of ships with this superimposed text:
“U.S. RUMESBAK NA. MGA WARSHIPS LUMUSOB SA CHINA. GYERA NA! (The U.S. has retaliated. Warships sent to attack China. It’s war!)”
Nothing of that sort has been initiated against China and no U.S.warships have been sent allegedly to attack it.
This is a clickbait. The video actually showed footage of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during the December 2023 ceremonial signing of the General Appropriations Act of 2024 while the voice-over talked about the signing into law of Republic Act No. 11976 or the Ease of Paying Taxes Act. But the thumbnail showed a photo of the fleet with the false headline.
A reverse image search revealed that the original photo used in the thumbnail was taken in 2012 during the Rim of the Pacific maritime exercise in Hawaii that year. These are not ships sent into Chinese territory by the United States, contrary to the video’s claim.
But the U.S. and the Philippines conducted a two-day joint patrol on the West Philippine Sea that consisted of several naval exercises at the start of the year, or a few days before the spurious Youtube video was published.
The video by PHILIPPINES TRENDING NEWS (created on Dec. 10, 2014) has garnered over 870 interactions, 61,000 views and could have potentially reached 466,000 YouTube users.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
