Video shows Philippine president at wreath-laying ceremony, not receiving award from US army

Published on March 3, 2025 at 08:37
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

Relations between Manila and Washington have deepened since Ferdinand Marcos became president, but a video with tens of thousands of views on TikTok does not show him receiving the US army's "highest honorary award". The video, filmed during the Philippine leader's visit to the United States in 2023, shows him laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

The TikTok video, showing President Ferdinand Marcos laying a wreath at a memorial before he is accompanied into a building by US soldiers holding his country's national flag, was shared on February 11, 2025.

"Awarded the highest honorary award of the USA Army, PBBM is something else," reads superimposed Tagalog-language text, using initials for the president that incorporate his nickname "Bongbong".

Images of Marcos and US President Donald Trump were also overlaid on the video, which was viewed more than 165,000 times.

Screenshot of the false TikTok post, captured on March 3, 2025

The video also circulated in other TikTok posts, with comments suggesting users believed the US army had given Marcos an honorary award.

"BBM you bring pride to our nation. I salute you!" read one comment.

Another read: "We are proud of you as Filipinos, PBBM. This is historical."

Manila and Washington are long-standing treaty allies and their relationship has deepened since Marcos took office in 2022 (archived link).

He is widely seen as having aggressively pushed back against China's claims over the South China Sea, a change from his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte's cosier relationship with Beijing (archived link).

The battle between the two political dynasties is at the heart of upcoming mid-term races, which could determine the political future of Duterte's eldest daughter, impeached Vice President Sara Duterte.

But there have been no official reports of Marcos receiving any award from the US military, and the video circulating online was in fact filmed in May 2023.

Wreath-laying ceremony

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a livestream shared on the verified YouTube channel of state-run broadcaster RTVM on May 4, 2023 (archived link).

"President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. pays his formal respects to the sacrifices of America's veterans by offering a wreath before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a solemn ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, United States of America on May 4, 2023," read the video's caption.

The video used in the false posts matches the footage shown between the 7:07 and 15:40 marks.

Screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the RTVM livestream (right)

Philippine broadcaster GMA News and the Pentagon's Defense Visual Information Distribution Service also published footage of the ceremony (archived here and here).

Marcos is not shown being given an award in any of the videos.

There is also no mention of Marcos being given the US army's "highest honorary award" in Philippine news reports about the ceremony or in an article on the Arlington National Cemetery's official website (archived here and here).

The claim was earlier debunked by Philippine fact-checking organisation VERA Files (archived link).

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