A misleading video on Facebook (FB) is claiming to show footage of military exercises between the United States (U.S.) and the Philippines, and praised President Ferdinand Marcos for the partnership.
An FB user published the reel on Feb. 21 which continues to circulate this week. It bore the caption, using the president’s moniker “BBM”: “Pinalaks (sic) na talaga ni BBM ANG PINAS (BBM has really strengthened the Philippines). US-SoKor, US-Philippines Military Exercise.”
The short video shows jets dropping bombs, helicopters firing ammunition rounds and armored military vehicles shooting artillery shells at painted targets on a nearby hill.
This is misleading. The footage shown in this short video was published seven years before Marcos took office and did not show any clips of actual military drills between the U.S. and the Philippines.
Verified YouTube channel AiirSource Military, a channel dedicated to publishing U.S. Armed Forces-related content, originally uploaded in September 2015 the video containing the snippets shown in the misleading reel.
According to the video description, it shows footage taken during the 2015 integrated live fire drill joined by 3,000 U.S. and South Korean (ROK) soldiers in the largest U.S.-ROK live fire exercise organized.
The Balikatan Exercises, the country’s annual military exercise with the U.S., has yet to happen and is currently slated for April.
The short misleading video emerged a week after the Philippine Coast Guard reported that a Chinese ship aimed a military-grade laser at their vessel in Ayungin Shoal on Feb. 6.
The FB netizen’s video has garnered over 8,000 reactions, 400 comments, 1,100 shares and 294,000 views.
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