The posts shared misleading claims about the Marcos family's connection to Manila airport after the election of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ( AFP / TED ALJIBE)

Posts mislead about Marcos family connection to Manila airport

This article is more than one year old.
Published on July 13, 2022 at 06:56
4 min read
By AFP Philippines

A video was viewed hundreds of thousands of times in Facebook and YouTube posts that misleadingly claim it shows Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr saying the country's biggest airport will be renamed after his father who purportedly built the airport. However, a review of the video found it only discusses a proposed law to rename Manila's airport that has not been passed by the Philippine Congress as of July 13, 2022. The construction of the airport predates the two-decade rule of the late dictator Marcos senior.

The video has been viewed more than 160,000 times after being shared on YouTube on July 5.

"Confirmed it's been changed. Finally the name of NAIA will be changed", reads the Tagalog-language text on the clip's thumbnail.

NAIA refers to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, named after late Philippine senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr, who was assassinated at the airport in 1983.

Photos of Philippine politicians -- including Marcos ally Rodante Marcoleta -- can also be seen in the thumbnail.

The video's caption reads: "NEW COMMAND [PRESIDENT] MARCOS MARCOLETA RENAME NAIA TO FERDINAND MARCOS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IT'S SET".

From the video's 31-second mark, a voiceover states NAIA "was built during Marcos senior's term".

Screenshot of misleading post taken on July 13, 2022

The video circulated online following reports from local news outlets about a proposed law to rename the airport after Marcos senior, who ruled from 1965 until he was deposed and succeeded by Corazon Aquino in 1986.

The video was viewed more than 140,000 times alongside similar claims on Facebook here, here and here.

The claims are misleading.

The video does not show Marcos Jr announcing the airport's name will be changed, and it was not first constructed during his father's term.

Airport construction

According to a spokesperson for the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) -- the government agency that manages NAIA -- the video contains false information as of July 13.

Jesus Martinez, head of the airport's media affairs division, said: "The President has yet to sign an order to rename the Airport Terminals".

The airport's construction and development predates Marcos senior's presidency and has spanned the terms of several other Philippine presidents.

The creation of the Manila International Airport was mentioned by President Manuel Roxas in his State of the Nation Address in January 1948, after the United States government returned the site of a US air force field in World War Two.

The airport's construction spanned the presidencies of Elpidio Quirino (April 1948 - December 1953), Ramon Magsaysay (December 1953 - March 1957) and Carlos P. Garcia (March 1957 - December 1961).

According to the MIAA's website, construction of the airport for international flights began in 1953.

A description on the airport's site reads: "The international runway and associated taxiway were built in 1953, and 1961 saw the completion of a control tower and a terminal building for the exclusive use of international passengers at the southwest intersection of the runways. This system came to be officially known as the Manila International Airport (MIA)".

The terminal for international flights was completed in September 1961, when Garcia held office.

Updates to the airport continued during Marcos's two-decade rule.

In 1987, the Manila International Airport was renamed after Marcos' arch-rival, opposition leader Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr.

Name change campaign

A review of the 10-minute clip found it only discusses a proposed law to change the airport's name, which is due to be discussed by the Philippine Congress.

Part of the video features the voice of former senatorial candidate Larry Gadon -- an avid Marcos supporter who has been campaigning to remove the late senator Aquino Jr's name from the airport -- posted on June 28, 2020.

The video used a clip of Marcos Jr during his meeting with the Philippine agriculture department on July 4.

Marcos Jr did not mention NAIA in the clip, where he spoke about the country's food supply.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the misleading post (left) and the original video of Marcos Jr's meeting (right):

False information that the Philippine airport was "a project of Marcos" circulated in 2021, months before the proposed law was filed.

It was debunked by Philippine fact-check outlets Vera Files and Rappler.

The renaming of NAIA has been the subject of disinformation debunked several times by AFP here and here.

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