Unrelated military clips falsely shared as 'German-Philippine weapons deal'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 31, 2023 at 08:04
5 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

After the Philippines accused China's coast guard of firing water cannon at its boats in August, unrelated clips of fighter jets surfaced in posts that falsely claim they show Germany supplying the Philippines with military weapons against China. But German and Philippine officials said no such weapons deal had happened. Multiple security experts separately told AFP the posts describe an unlikely scenario.

"Philippine military armed by German troops against China," reads the Tagalog-language title to a nine-minute video shared on YouTube on August 16.

Its caption reads: "Strong weapons from the German military are being sent to the Philippine armed forces! Watch this video to get full details of this news!"

A narrator could be heard repeating the same claim during the first half of the video -- made up of different clips of fighter jets and marching soldiers.

The rest of the video discusses Washington's request to Manila to temporarily host Afghan citizens awaiting resettlement in the United States.

The video has been viewed over 40,000 times.

Screenshot of the false post taken August 31, 2023

The video was also shared on a Facebook page with more than 31,000 followers and posted elsewhere on the social media platform here and here.

The Philippines condemned China's coast guard for firing water cannon at its vessels in the disputed South China Sea on August 5, describing the actions as "illegal" and "dangerous".

China said it had taken "necessary controls" against Philippines boats that had "illegally" entered its waters.

Beijing claims almost all of the sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, and has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

In a statement shared on Facebook on August 6, Germany's embassy in Manila said it was "concerned" by the incident (archived link).

But the European nation is not arming the Philippine military, Alexander Schmidt, an official at the German Embassy in Manila told AFP.

"The claim that Germany was or is turning over anti-aircraft munitions and anti-ship missiles to the Philippines amid the West Philippine sea dispute is false," Schmidt said on August 21.

Manila refers to waters immediately to its west as the West Philippine Sea.

Schmidt added Germany remains committed to uphold the rules-based maritime order "by peaceful means".

Asked if the Philippines recently received weapons from Germany, Lieutenant Colonel Enrico Gil Ileto, public affairs chief of the Philippine armed forces told AFP on August 18: "No, we did not."

Unrelated clips

Reverse image searches of keyframes show the video has used clips unrelated to the South China Sea dispute.

The clip at the 00:15 mark -- showing a fighter jet flying past a soldier -- actually depicts Estonian and Germany forces in the Baltic Tiger 2022 joint military exercise.

The video was posted by the German armed forces Bundeswehr on October 18, 2022 on X, formerly known as Twitter (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared with the false claim (left) and the video uploaded by the Bundeswehr (right):

Clip in the false post (left) and video uploaded by the Bundeswehr (right)

The clip of military troops holding torches at the 00:45 mark corresponds to a video uploaded on October 13, 2021 by the Bundeswehr on X (archived link).

"To #appreciate all those involved in the #Afghanistan mission, there will be a Grosser Zapfenstreich tonight," says the Bundeswehr's post in German.

The Grosser Zapfenstreich is the most important form of a ceremonial act of the German armed forces. AFP has also reported on the ceremony here.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the false post (left) and the one shared by the Bundeswehr (right):

Clip in the false post (left) and video posted by the Bundeswehr (right)

Another clip showing a fighter jet leaving a hangar seen at 1:01 mark was originally uploaded on a NATO website and shows an Italian F-35A fighter jet (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the fighter jet as seen in the false video (left) and in the clip shared by NATO (right):

Fighter jet shown in the false video (left) and original footage from NATO (right)

The video also used clips from a military parade during the inauguration of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in June 2022 (archived link).

Unlikely scenario

AFP has not found credible reports or government disclosures supporting the claim made in the false posts (archived link).

Experts say the scenario the posts describe is unlikely to be left unreported.

Chester Cabalza, founder of Manila-based nonprofit International Development and Security Cooperation, said international arms deals follow "stringent" rules on transparency in the planning, negotiation, acquisition and delivery stages (archived link).

A scenario where Germany is secretly arming the Philippines is also unlikely, said Edcel John Ibarra, an assistant professor of political science from the University of the Philippines (archived link).

"Even when disclosure is not legally required, disclosure is nonetheless often done by supplying countries because an arms deal itself is often a useful signal for deterrence," Ibarra said.

"Covertly supplying the Philippines arms would defeat deterrence and miss an opportunity to conduct defence diplomacy."

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