A YouTube video claims that the Philippines and Vietnam have bombed an aircraft from China, supposedly as a prelude to war among these countries. This is not true. The video is merely clickbait and no such attack took place.
Uploaded on Aug. 11, the video’s headline read:
“KAKAPASOK LANG Diosko Po! Vietnam at Pilipinas Bin0mba CHlNA, Bumagsak Eroplano LAHAT P A T A Y! WPS. (Just in, oh god! Vietnam and Philippines bombed China, airplane crashed. Everybody is dead! WPS).”
Its thumbnail also bore the text: “EROPLANO BUMAGSAK! DIOSKO PO! MALALA TO! LAHAT PATAY! GYERA NA TALAGA (Airplane crashed! Oh my god! This is extreme! Everybody is dead! Is this really war)?”
The two Southeast Asian countries, which both have territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, have not staged such an attack.
The Philippine and Vietnam coast guards only held joint maritime drills near the West Philippine Sea on Aug. 9 to enhance its capabilities on search and rescue operations and fire prevention.
Admiral Ronnie Gavan, Philippine Coast Guard commandant, said the exercise aims to further improve cooperation between the two countries in “addressing common maritime challenges.”
The circulating video merely showed clips of an Aug. 10 Bombo Radyo newscast about the Philippines’ live fire exercises with the United States the day before, and the joint drills with Vietnam.
The video then played unrelated commentary from a previously fact-checked vlogger about an Aug. 9 plane crash in Brazil which killed 62 people.
Uploaded by the YouTube channels PHILIPPINES TRENDING NEWS (created Dec. 10, 2014) and WANGBUDISS TV (Feb. 6, 2017), the erroneous video received 36,151 interactions. Facebook users also reposted the link.
