Multiple reports of a new airport built near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) spread on social media over the past few days.
The reports, which have been shared by more than one million netizens, claim a new airport has been constructed near NAIA.
The articles originated from and were shared by two Facebook pages – one of the pages accumulated more than 800,000 shares while the other had more than 200,000.
Following the viral news, French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) investigated and released an article debunking the legitimacy of the viral reports.
It also clarified that the airport photo, which the reports claim to be the new Manila airport, is actually a photo of a proposed airport in China.
“There is no new airport in Manila and the false reports use an image from a design for a planned Chinese airport to mislead,” AFP said.
AFP further detailed that the photo was “traced back to a Chinese project by the international architecture firm Corgan.”
Aside from the fake photo, AFP also noted that no reports were released by the official media channels of the government regarding the viral new Manila airport.
