A YouTube video’s thumbnail has misused a photo of a man standing on the roof of a house submerged in flood in Marikina City during the onslaught of typhoon Ulysses in 2020 to falsely depict the damage brought by supertyphoon Pepito during its first landfall in the Bicol region on Nov. 16.
The video posted on Nov. 16 by YouTube channel Kienn Thoughts and crossposted that day on a similarly named Facebook page also altered the original photo by inserting images of cars engulfed by floods.
Breaking news mga kabayan! Bagyong Pepito na may International name na Man-yi ganap ng isang Super Typhoon, ilang mga lugar sa Bicol region, naranasan na ang hagupit ng Supertyphoon Pepito habang patuloy nga itong lumalapit sa kalupaan ng Pilipinas! Maya mya ay ipapakita ko sa inyo ang ilang mga video footage na ini-upload ng ating mga kababayan mula sa apektadong lugar (Breaking news, fellow kabayan! Typhoon Pepito with the international name of Man-Yi becomes a supertyphoon, several areas in the Bicol region experienced the onslaught of supertyphoon Pepito as it continues to approach the land of the Philippines! Later I’ll show you video footage uploaded by our fellow kababayan from the affected areas).
Its text overlay read “Hagupit ni Pepito (Attack of Pepito)” to support the claim that the flooding seen in the picture was an effect of the typhoon.
A reverse image search of the thumbnail revealed that the photo was taken for the Associated Press by Aaron Favila in Marikina City on Nov. 12, 2020 when typhoon Ulysses (international name: Vamco) heavily struck different areas in Luzon, including Metro Manila.
The photo appeared that day in an AP article written by Jim Gomez as the ninth photo of the photoset and was captioned:
A man stands on a roof as floods continue to rise in Marikina, Philippines due to Typhoon Vamco on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. (The) typhoon swelled rivers and flooded low-lying areas as it passed over the storm-battered northeast Philippines, where rescuers were deployed early Thursday to help people flee the rising waters.
Google Maps confirmed that the photo was taken in Felicidad Village-3, Barangay Banaba, Marikina City near Marikina River. Favila, the photographer of the original photo, also confirmed the location via private message.
The YouTube channel Weather Damage in October also used the edited photo as a thumbnail to falsely show typhoon Kristine’s (international name: Trami) aftermath.
After the onslaught of Ulysses, then and current Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro declared the city under a state of calamity.
Kienn Thoughts’ video has garnered 134,990 views, 1,700 likes and 72 comments as of Nov. 19. It reused the photo as a thumbnail in another video that is supposed to be an update on Pepito a day after the previous video.
The channel was created in January 2017 and has 945,000 subscribers. (EV, CA)