As Metro Manila was being pummeled by multiple storms and the Southwest monsoon (Habagat), a viral video was making the rounds on Facebook, showing an alleged “underground” tunnel in Quezon City submerged in floodwaters. The video was created using artificial intelligence.
On July 18, an FB user published the spurious video with the following caption:
“Grabe na ang baha sa Quezon City dahil sa bagyong Crising (Flooding in Quezon City has gotten worse due to Typhoon Crising)”
The eight-second video showed multiple vehicles being swept out of a supposed underground tunnel on Quezon Ave. as floodwaters were surging while bystanders calmly observed the catastrophe from an overpass.
This is fake. The original publisher of the video is a creator of AI-generated media.
TikTok channel disasterstrucks first published the AI-created video. On its equivalent YouTube channel with the same name, the owner put out a disclaimer saying “the videos you see [are] just pure art, made entirely by me.”
While there is an underground tunnel on Quezon Avenue, it is not a totally enclosed structure and there are no trees along that route. VERA Files Fact Check also noted a couple of red flags in the video indicating the use of AI.
The video continues to spread as Typhoon Emong moves toward Bacnotan, La Union after making landfall in Ilocos Sur, further intensifying rainfall brought by Habagat in other regions of the country.
The Facebook user’s viral video has garnered over 8,300 reactions, 3,300 comments, 1,900 shares and 4.8 million views.
