FACT CHECK: Video shows Singapore military vehicles, not donations from Japan

Claim: A video shows the arrival of multiple military vehicles allegedly given by Japan to the Philippines on February 22, 2023.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The YouTube post has 4,400 views as of writing. 

Video taken in Singapore: The clip shown in the video containing the claim was first uploaded by YouTube user Wilson Adam Wong on January 23, 2023. The video shows Singaporean military vehicles as they pass a road.

The clip used by the video containing the claim can be found at the 0:59 timestamp of the original video. 

The military vehicles also have Singapore’s flag attached to them, but the video containing the claim cropped Wong’s video to remove the flags. 

In the original video, the South Beach North Tower can also be seen in the background. It is a skyscraper located on Beach Road in Singapore’s Downtown Core. 

Helicopters, not land vehicles: The embassy of Japan in the Philippines doesn’t have any announcements that Japan will give the Philippines any kind of land-based military vehicles. 

On December 19, 2022, the Philippine News Agency published an article that said the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) had committed to transferring Japanese-made UH-1J utility helicopters as part of a government grant. Army spokesperson Colonel Xerxes Trinidad didn’t say in the same article that the Japanese government would donate other military vehicles besides the helicopters. – Lorenz Pasion/Rappler.com

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