Video falsely claims Trump announced visa-free entry for the Philippines
- Published on January 31, 2025 at 06:39
- Updated on January 31, 2025 at 06:40
- 3 min read
- By Lucille SODIPE, AFP Philippines
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A three-minute Facebook video shared January 23 shows a man saying in Tagalog: "Free US visa for Filipinos to be implemented by Trump."
The background is a screenshot of the official BBC News TikTok account featuring an image of Trump during his inauguration.
"I just read it here on BBC, not sure if it's true," the speaker says.
The clip also circulated on TikTok and YouTube.
One TikTok clip viewed more than one million times and posted a day before the inauguration makes a similar claim in English, saying Trump has talked about granting visas to Filipinos for being "hardworking, honest and God-fearing."
Comments indicate some social media users believed the claims.
"This was a long time coming. We fought wars with them, died side-by-side with them during WWII. We should have been visa-free a long time ago," one user said.
"Amazing really?? It's a good news," wrote another.
Trump signed a blizzard of divisive presidential orders as he was sworn in for a historic second term, pardoning supporters who violently attacked the US Capitol and clamping down on immigration in a whirlwind return to the White House four years after leaving in disgrace (archived link).
However, the claim spreading online is false.
The Philippines is not included in the United States' visa waiver programme, which allows citizens of some countries to visit without a visa for up to three months for travel or business (archived link). The island nation ranked fourth among Asian countries in terms of the number of US business and tourist visas issued in 2023 (archived link).
Visa requirements unchanged
Keyword searches found the screenshot of Trump in the video is the first scene in a January 20 TikTok clip from BBC News titled "Donald Trump inauguration" (archived link).
In the British broadcaster's video, Trump says there are only two genders.
According to a video of the inauguration address from the US Department of State and a transcript from the White House, the Republican did not say the Philippines would be added to the visa waiver programme (archived links here and here). AFP did not find any other reports indicating Trump made such an announcement.
Kanishka Gangopadhyay, spokesperson for the US embassy in Manila, told AFP on January 30 that "this claim is false."
"Non-immigrant visa requirements for Filipino nationals, including application fees, remain unchanged," he said.
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