A Filipino netizen uploaded a clip from the Balikatan exercises last April falsely claiming that it shows the United States military forces attacking Iran.
On June 22, a Facebook user posted a 10-second clip of ships bearing the American flag and helicopters at sea. The video bore the text:
“Omg parang pelikula lang (just like in the movies). US attack (sic) Iran.”
This is fake. The video is not related to the latest Israel-Iran confrontation. This was from Balikatan, an annual joint military exercise between the U.S. and the Philippines held last April.
The original video shows U.S. vessels and helicopters during a casualty evacuation hoist training in Subic Bay as part of Balikatan 2025, which is meant to strengthen the interoperability and military capability between the U.S, and the Philippines.
The U.S. Special Operations Command Pacific took the video on April 22 and uploaded to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website.
The false video was circulated more than a week after Israel launched missile attacks on Iran on June 13, prompting Tehran to retaliate.
On June 23, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the two camps had agreed to a ceasefire. The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs welcomed the announcement and urged concerned parties to “continue engaging in dialogue and negotiations toward a permanent solution to this issue.”
According to the Department of Migrant Workers, 31 overseas Filipino workers – 26 from Israel, one from Palestine and one from Qatar – have been repatriated amid the conflict.
VERA Files has debunked several mis-disinformation related to the Israel-Iran conflict.
The video uploaded by the FB user garnered 226 comments, 669 shares and 1,000,000 views as of writing.
