A video repeated a false claim that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has withdrawn his family’s alleged $987 billion foreign bank deposit. This is a clickbait to an unrelated video.
When clicked, the video showed clips of relief operations for victims of Super Typhoon Egay and the state visit of European Union (EU) officials several days ago. Not one supports the headline that read:
“GRABE! NAGIMBAL ang BUONG MUNDO HETO na! (Amazing! The whole world was shocked. Here it is!) $987Billion MARCOS ACCOUNT BRUSSELS BELGIUM DILAWAN NGANGA (Yellows were dumbfounded)!”
The video, uploaded on Facebook (FB) and YouTube on July 31, also carried the thumbnail “$987 BILLION DOLLARS MARCOS ACCOUNT SA WAKAS NAKUHA NANI (sic) PBBM (finally withdrawn by President Bongbong Marcos)” alongside an image of Imelda Marcos appearing to hold a document and President Marcos’ photo next to people who are also showing documents. Beside these are overlay texts saying “$987 Billion pinakita na (finally shown)” and “Para to sa lahat (This is for everyone).”
Reverse image search revealed that Imelda Marcos’ photo was a mirrored version of an image taken during her 90th birthday celebration in 2019. The former first lady was not carrying any document in the original photo.
Meanwhile, the president’s picture was taken from RTVMalacanang’s July 31 coverage of the signing of the EU’s 60-million-euro grant for the Green Economy Program in the Philippines. Also in that photo are EU Ambassador to the Philippines Luc Veron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Environment Secretary Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga.
The video featured multiple spliced clips from news reports and a documentary. It began with three videos taken from a July 29 Bombo Radyo Philippines report which showed Marcos’ visit to typhoon-stricken communities in Abra, along with the government’s cash aid and relief programs for storm victims.
This was followed by a 2009 British Broadcasting Corp documentary clip where Imelda Marcos showed a supposed treasury certificate of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s $987 billion deposit in a Belgian bank. VERA Files Fact Check has found this claim to have no basis.
The rest of the video only played clips from RTVMalacanang’s YouTube channel, showing von der Leyen’s state visit, which focused on trade, security and environment protection.
Previously fact-checked YouTube channels PHILIPPINES TRENDING NEWS and WANGBUDISS TV uploaded the videos garnering 24,023 views. FB pages Philippines trending News, Showbiz Fanatics and Bbm&Sara2022 reposted the clip.
An FB reel and a TikTok video rehashed this erroneous claim on Aug. 5 using clips from the EU officials’ state visit. Both videos contained the superimposed text:
“pilipinas mag handa na.. tayo na ang pinaka mayaman sa lahat. pbbm kinuha na ang marcos Account sa Beldium (sic) $987B. (Philippines, get ready. We are the richest among all countries. PBBM has withdrawn the Marcos Account in Belgium $987 billion.)”
The FB reel received 1.1 million views, 40,000 reactions, 8,200 comments and 13,000 shares while the TikTok video uploaded by user callingmyuniverse amassed 3.6 million views, 194,300 likes, 3,742 comments and 10,900 shares.
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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.)
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