A YouTube video falsely passed off three-year-old clips of a maritime drill to claim that the China Coast Guard (CCG) fired water cannons at the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to drive them out of Pag-asa Island.
Posted on April 3, the two-minute video bore the headline:
“CHINA VS PILIPINAS BUMANAT NA (CHINA VS PHILIPPINES ALREADY HIT!) PHILIPPINE VINES BREAKING NEWS VIRAL.”
Its thumbnail featured a “Breaking News” label superimposed on a screenshot of PCG and CCG vessels firing water cannons at another ship. The thumbnail text claims it is of a battle between the Philippines and China.
This is false. The clips and screenshot were taken from a CNN Philippines report on the PCG and CCG’s joint drills on search and rescue and combating fire at sea held in Manila Bay on Jan. 15, 2020.
The drill scenario involved PCG’s BRP Tubbataha and CCG’s Vessel 5204 firing water cannons at another ship that supposedly caught fire, and rescuing its passengers and crew.
An unrelated photo of a woman in camouflage clothing was shown as an inset throughout the false video.
In 2021, it was not the PCG but CCG that fired water cannons at their Filipino counterparts in Ayungin Shoal.
The false video was uploaded four days after the PCG reported on March 30 that it spotted a People’s Liberation Army-Navy vessel within Pag-asa Island’s 12 nautical miles during a patrol that month to the Kalayaan Island Group.
YouTube channel Ella Vloggs (created on Feb. 15, 2019) posted the false video that has 380,007 views as of writing. Netizens also shared the link on Facebook.
This is the eighth time that VERA Files Fact Check debunked false content spread by this channel. (Read Video DOES NOT show a German warship in Mindanao)
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