A YouTube video featured an Italian Navy warship and passed it off as the latest Philippine-made navy vessel supposedly to be deployed in the West Philippine Sea.
Uploaded on Nov. 22, the one-minute and 55-second video shows a warship sailing while escorted by smaller vessels. It bore the caption:
“CHINA VS PINAS BARKONG PANG DIGMA NG PILIPINAS INILABAS NA (CHINA VS PHILIPPINES WARSHIP OF THE PHILIPPINES NOW RELEASED)! WEST PHILIPPINE SEA VIRAL.”
The thumbnail shows a ship with a Philippine flag that was digitally added. The video flashed clips of the warship as text claimed that it would be used in the West Philippine Sea “as a defense against China.”
The ship in the video is the Italian frigate Antonio Marceglia (F 597) entering the port of Gdynia in Poland.
YouTube channel Tomasz Hebel uploaded the original clip last Nov. 10. The clips were mirrored in the false video.
Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri built the warship, one of the Italian Navy’s Bergamini Class frigates. It is under the Fregata Europea Multi-Missione, a joint Italian-French Defense industrial cooperation project.
Frigate Antonio Marceglia previously visited the port of Gdynia during operations with allied forces.
Note: Click on the photo to view its original source
The ship in the thumbnail was also altered to show a Philippine flag. It is an illustration by the Zelenodolsk Design Bureau in Russia of a corvette-trimaran ship model.
The false video was uploaded nearly two weeks after the China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia vessels again “recklessly harassed, blocked, executed dangerous maneuvers” against a Philippine resupply mission to BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal.
The Philippine Coast Guard said it detected 38 Chinese ships, the highest number to date, during the Nov. 10 mission at the disputed area.
YouTube channel Ella Vloggs (created on Feb. 15, 2019) uploaded the video which has 5,425 views as of writing.
VERA Files Fact Check has been flagging this channel that peddles disinformation related to the West Philippine Sea dispute to its 305,000 subscribers. (Read Video DOES NOT show Japanese jets sent to West Philippine Sea)
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