A Facebook (FB) video misled netizens into thinking that Russian warships recently entered the territories of the Philippines and Taiwan. The Russian frigates just passed through the Philippine Sea that is considered part of international waters. The incident took place two months ago.
In a video posted on Aug. 11 by FB page Maharlika Tv, a narrator falsely insinuated that Russian ships entered Philippine territory by saying:
“Ang mga frigate ng Russia na napadaan sa Taiwan ay ang mga barko ng Russian Pacific Fleet na pumasok sa timog na bahagi ng karagatan ng Pilipinas upang magsagawa ng mga gawain bilang bahagi ng isang long-range sea passage.”
(The Russian frigates that passed by Taiwan are ships of the Russian Pacific Fleet that entered the southern part of the Philippine Sea to conduct activities as part of a long-range sea passage.)
Part of Maharlika Tv’s video content was based on a June 28 Reuters article translated into Filipino.
On June 27, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense spotted two Russian frigates off its eastern coast near the city of Suao.
Russian news agency Interfax said that the Russian corvettes Gromkiy and Sovershenniy sailed by the Philippine Sea as they conducted tasks related to a long-distance sea passage.
Multiple experts quoted in a South China Morning Post article say the Russian ships spotted by Taiwan may be on their way home from the Multilateral Naval Exercises Komodo held in Indonesia from June 5 to 8.
Freedom of navigation in the high seas, not included in the exclusive economic zone, in the territorial sea or in the internal waters of a State, or in the archipelagic waters of an archipelagic State, is guaranteed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). No state can validly purport to subject any part of the high seas to its sovereignty, according to international law.
The misleading Facebook video got 752,074 interactions.
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