FALSE: Biden quote threatening to cancel US visas issued in PH

At a glance:

• Claim: US President Joe Biden threatened to cancel all US visas issued in the Philippines if President Rodrigo Duterte cancels the Visiting Forces Agreement.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: There is no proof that Biden said this.
• Why we fact-checked this: This claim was emailed to Rappler for verification. Posts containing this claim were spotted through social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle and on Facebook.

Complete details:

Multiple Facebook accounts and pages circulated a photo falsely claiming that US President Joe Biden threatened to cancel all visas issued in the Philippines if President Rodrigo Duterte cancels the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

The photo read, “Biden to PH President: ‘You don’t deserve our vaccines. Cancel VFA and we will cancel all US Visas.'”

It also includes text that says, “President-Elect Joe Biden threatens to cancel all US visas to be issued in the Philippines following President Duterte’s statement on the VFA agreement,” making it appear that it came from CNN.com.

As spotted through social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle and on Facebook, this claim had already been circulating since December 2020. On December 26, Duterte said that if the US fails to deliver at least 20 million vaccines, US soldiers will not be allowed to stay. (READ: Duterte dangles VFA for US-made vaccine: ‘No vaccine, get out’)

In February, a Rappler reader emailed the photo for verification. Duterte told the US on February 12 that if it wants the VFA to continue, it would “have to pay.”

The claim about the canceled visas is false.

Rappler found no statements, reports, audio, or video that prove Biden said this. There are also no reports published by CNN that confirm it.

On February 11, the Philippines and the US started talks on the future of the VFA. Prior to this, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had both spoken with their counterparts in the Biden administration, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III, tackling key points of the two countries’ defense alliance. (READ: Philippines, US start talks on VFA fate)

Both countries have until August 2021 to finalize a new deal. – Loreben Tuquero/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.