False Philippine landslide posts misuse old clip from Taiwan

Published on July 11, 2025 at 10:18
3 min read
By Lucille SODIPE, AFP Philippines

Footage of a mudslide in northeastern Taiwan in 2022 has been misrepresented as video of a landslide in a southern Philippine city in July. The mayor of Pagadian City called the posts sharing the clip "entirely false" after they spread widely on social media, alarming local residents.

"VIDEO WATCH: LANDSLIDE IN PAGADIAN CITY," reads the caption to a Facebook reel shared on July 5. Pagadian city is located in the southern island of Mindanao (archived link).

Viewed over 1.8 million times, the clip shows a mudslide rolling down the side of a mountain onto a road. Backhoes can be seen operating near the site.

The sound of people shouting in the Visayan language can be heard.

Screenshot of false post taken on July 9, 2025, with a red X mark added by AFP

The clip spread on Facebook and elsewhere on TikTok with people seemingly worried about the disaster.

"Where is this in Pagadian, why is it not in the news?" one asked.

"That's what happens when there's a quarrying site," another said.

Although geological hazard map data of the city issued by the country's environment agency shows numerous areas are "highly susceptible" to landslides, the video in fact shows an incident in Taiwan (archived link).

Pagadian city Mayor Samuel Co issued a statement on his Facebook page on July 5, where he identified posts carrying the footage of the landslide as "entirely false" (archived link).

"We respectfully request the Pagadianon to maintain composure and exercise discretion by refraining from disseminating such unsubstantiated claims, as they may cause unnecessary public concern," he added, addressing the city's residents.

A reverse video search on Google found the clip has been circulating online since October 2022 on social media sites Weibo, Douyin and YouTube (archived here, here, here).

The sound of someone shouting "the whole slice of mountain is falling down" in Chinese -- not Visayan -- can be heard in the video clip. The Chinese-language caption of the Douyin post shared on October 17, 2022 reads "Landslide in the mountainous areas of Yilan in Taiwan".

Screenshot comparison of the circulating footage on Facebook in the Philippines (left) and the clip shared on Douyin in 2022 (right)

Further keyword searches found news reports from Taiwan's Public Television Service and local broadcaster Formosa TV about landslides in Yilan County's Datong Township on October 16, 2022 (archived here, here, here, and here).

According to the reports, hundreds of residents were evacuated from the area after Typhoon Nesat caused massive landslides, particularly along Highway 7.

A check on Google and Bing maps shows a cavity on the side of a mountain along the old and new roads of Highway 7. It also shows rice paddies similar to the one seen on the circulating clip's foreground.

Screenshot comparison of the clip shared on Douyin in 2022 (left) and an image on Google Maps taken in 2023 (right)

AFP has previously debunked misinformation about disasters here.

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