These images show a routine flag lowering ceremony at the Philippine embassy in Kuwait

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 23, 2020 at 05:15
3 min read
By AFP Philippines

Two photos have been shared hundreds of times in multiple Facebook posts that claim they show the Philippine flag being removed from the country's embassy in Kuwait after Manila banned new overseas workers from relocating to the Gulf state. The photos have been shared in a misleading context; they are actually screenshots taken from a Facebook video which shows a routine flag lowering ceremony at the embassy; the Philippine foreign affairs department told AFP that people had mistaken the flag ceremony as a deliberate removal of the flag following the worker deployment ban.

The photos were posted here on Facebook on January 17, 2020. The post was shared more than 900 times.

One photo marked “Before” shows the Philippine flag flying, while another photo marked “After” shows the flag lowered and being folded.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

Screenshot of Facebook post

The post’s Tagalog-language caption translates to English as: "The Philippine flag was removed from our embassy here in Kuwait. It seems the Philippines has given up because of the inhumane things done to our fellow Filipinos. (Reposted)
#salute all OFW
#justice served".

In January, Manila announced a ban on the deployment of newly-hired domestic helpers to Kuwait following reported cases of maltreatment and deaths of Filipino workers there. Here is a government resolution dated January 3, 2020 on the issue.

The same photos with a similar claim about the deployment ban were shared here, here and here on Facebook.

But the photos are being shared in a misleading context; AFP traced the source of the photos to this Facebook live video, posted on January 16, 2020. It shows a flag lowering ceremony at the embassy while the Philippine national anthem plays.

Below is a screenshot of the Facebook live video, which is 11 minutes and 10 seconds in length:

Screenshot of Facebook video

The live video’s Tagalog-language caption translates to English as: “FLAG LOWERING AT OUR EMBASSY”.

Twice in the live video, a voiceover in Tagalog can be heard saying the flag lowering is a routine ceremony at the embassy done every Thursday.

From the 00:40-00:46 mark, the voiceover says: “The flag lowering is happening here. This happens every Thursday at our embassy.”

And from the 03:15-03:24 mark, the voiceover says: “So there’s the flag lowering because it’s Thursday. Meanwhile, the flag raising happens every Sunday.”

In Kuwait, weekend days are Friday and Saturday.

Below is a screenshot comparison showing the photos in the misleading posts (L) and keyframes of the Facebook live video (R):

Screenshot comparison

The Philippine foreign affairs department told AFP the flag lowering had been mistaken for a deliberate removal of the flag due to the deployment ban.

“According to Philippine Embassy Kuwait, the removal of the flag last Thurs is the flag retreat ceremony of the Post,” foreign affairs assistant secretary Eduardo Menez said in a WhatsApp message on January 21.

“Someone took on FB Live the flag retreat ceremony and others may have thought that it was deliberately removed because of the ban.”

The Philippine flag can be seen flying again at the embassy in this Facebook live video posted on January 19.

Below is a screenshot of the Facebook video:

Screenshot of Facebook video

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail