Two YouTube videos falsely claimed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has once again withdrawn his family’s unproven million metric tons of gold reserves, this time in Indonesia. These are clickbait to unrelated videos.
When clicked, the video only showed a clip of Marcos and other leaders arriving at the Jakarta Convention Center for the opening ceremony of the 43rd Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It also showed his meetings with leaders of ASEAN partner nations and private investors.
Both videos were uploaded on Sept. 5, the same day the ASEAN summit in the Indonesian capital began. The headline of one video read:
“ANG NAKAKAGIMBAL NA MARCOS ACCOUNT SA INDONESIA HETO NA! MGA ASEAN LEADERS NAGLALAPITAN NA KAY PBBM (The shocking Marcos account in Indonesia is finally here! ASEAN leaders are coming to President Bongbong Marcos).”
The same video also displayed in its thumbnail a photo of Marcos with three other Philippine government officials, a stack of gold bars, along with this text:
“BUONG MUNDO NAALARMA. MARCOS ACCOUNT SA INDONESIA HETO NA! OMG ASEAN LEADERS NAGLALAPITAN NA KAY BBM DAHIL SA MARCOS GOLD (The whole world was alarmed. The Marcos account in Indonesia is here! Oh my god ASEAN leaders are coming to President Bongbong Marcos because of the Marcos gold)?”
Meanwhile, the other video carried this erroneous headline:
“NAKAKATINDIG BALAHIBO MARCOS ACCOUNT SA INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL BANK OF INDONESIA PBBM GAGAMITIN NA!? (Goosebumps. Marcos account at the International Central Bank of Indonesia. President Bongbong Marcos will use it now!?)”
The said video also bore a thumbnail showing a photo of Marcos with other ASEAN leaders and a pile of gold bars. Beside these are overlay texts saying “PBBM GAGAMITIN NA PARA SA NEW TECHNOLOGY NG PINAS? ASEAN LEADERS NA-SHOCKED (President Bongbong Marcos will use this for new technology for the Philippines? ASEAN leaders were shocked)!” and “INTERNATIONAL BANK OF INDONESIA NAGSALITA NA (Finally spoke)!”
But upon playing, the video only showed ASEAN state leaders during the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Forum on Sept. 5. The forum featured an exhibit of projects on green infrastructure, sustainable financing, digital transformation and creative economy.
One of the presenters at the exhibit was the state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia, which the video erroneously claimed as the Central Bank of Indonesia where Marcos supposedly withdrew his family’s foreign deposit.
The two erroneous videos also flashed an entitlement certificate allegedly signed by Ferdinand Marcos Sr., showing that the late dictator had deposited 1.1 million metric tons of gold bullions at the Central Bank of the Philippines (CBP).
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which replaced the CBP in 1993, previously said they do not have the said amount of gold from the Marcos family in their storage.
The World Gold Council reported that only 208,874 tons of gold have been mined throughout history as of February 2023, way below the million tons being attributed to the Marcos family.
In a 2022 interview, President Marcos denied that his family had that much gold reserves in their possession:
“Tone–tonelada ang sinasabi nila, hanggang ngayon hindi pa nila mahanap. Hindi nila mahanap because it doesn’t exist ([We have] tons of gold, they say, yet it hasn’t been found up to now. They can’t find it because it doesn’t exist.”
Source: One News PH YouTube channel, “Bongbong Marcos on mythical Tallano gold: ‘Hindi nila mahanap because it doesn’t exist,” March 15, 2022
VERA Files Fact Check has previously debunked numerous claims about the Marcos wealth several times.
Uploaded by verified YouTube channel PweDelie TV, the videos have so far garnered 130,794 views and 6,000 likes.
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