A Facebook (FB) post with photos supposedly showing military supplies claims they were sent by the United States to the Philippines this June. This is false. The photos showed U.S. aid delivered to Ukraine in 2022.
Starting June 23, FB pages and users have posted images of supplies being prepared and loaded onto an aircraft. The posts bore this caption:
“Breaking: now Philippines surprised, Thousands of US Ammunition and Weapons Flown to the Philippines.
In a major operation, the United States flew thousands of munitions, weapons and other military equipment to the Philippines. The flight was conducted by the US Air Force’s 60th Air Port Squadron, which loaded cargo onto a Boeing 737 aircraft at Travis Air Force Base, California today.
The aircraft is scheduled to land at Clark military base in the Philippines.
Thousands of cargo are loaded onto a Boeing 737 aircraft at Travis Air Force Base, California on June 22, 2024. The plane will land at Clark military base in the Philippines in the near future.
Source: military information”
The photos were screenshots from a June 23 video uploaded by the YouTube channel MILITARY INFORMATION that used the same text above as its headline and description.
These posts are false. The three photos show cargo sent by the U.S. to Ukraine in 2022.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) official FB page issued an advisory on June 26 debunking the claim.
“Photos claiming to show a massive shipment of US military supplies to the Philippines are FALSE. These images were actually taken during a US aid delivery to Ukraine in 2022,” a portion of the advisory read.
Reverse image search further revealed that the first and second images were from a video of the Dover Air Force in Delaware during a foreign military sales mission for Ukraine on Feb. 10, 2022.
The last image, meanwhile, is of humanitarian aid cargo at the Dover Air Force Base bound for Ukraine on July 29, 2022.
The false posts circulated days after the June 17 Ayungin incident where the China Coast Guard blocked the Philippines’ humanitarian rotation and resupply operation to the BRP Sierra Madre military outpost.
The U.S. has since issued a statement condemning China’s aggressive actions.
The Philippines signed a Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the U.S. in 1951 requiring them to assist each other in the event of an armed attack by another country. (Read PH will NOT invoke MDT after recent China clash)
VERA Files Fact Check has noted a rise in disinformation related to the Philippines’ military capabilities and its allies amid the heightened tensions with China in the West Philippine Sea. (Read OLD photos claimed as foreign warships headed to WPS MISLEAD)
FB users and pages such as War today (created on March 10, 2022) and Developing Philippines (Aug. 28, 2023) posted the images with the wrong context.
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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.)