Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. allegedly confirmed that US President Donald Trump allowed visa-free travel for Asians to the United States.
The article was even shared on Facebook.
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However, some netizens expressed doubt over the veracity of the news, with others even declaring it as fake news.
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We checked the source of the article, which is metro-uk.com. It claimed that Yasay confirmed that Trump has allowed Asians to travel to the US for business or holiday for up to 180 days without a visa after he received a memo from the US Embassy. This came after news went viral about how Trump signed an executive order to permit Asians visa-free travel to the US, a story that Meme Buster has already busted as fake.
However, the article insisted that the Foreign Affairs Department has stood by the visa-free travel policy to the US for Asians as a true story. Only those who will stay for over 180 days in the US will need to obtain a visa.
The said development is credited to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the US.
But there are many things that aren’t true in this story.
- Trump did not sign an executive order for a US visa-free travel for Asians. In fact, the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur has declared this story as “fake news.”
- Abe did meet Trump, but it was in November 2016, when Trump was still President-elect and Obama was still the US President. Therefore, it is not possible for Trump to order a visa-free travel for Asians during that time. Abe is set to meet with Trump, but the meeting is set on February 10.
- Claims about Yasay making a statement confirming Trump’s alleged visa-free policy for Asians are untrue. This is not the first time Yasay became the subject of fake news. Meme Buster also busted a satirical article about how Yasay allegedly confirmed visa-free travel for Filipinos to the UK.
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Meme Buster has debunked several false claims made by metro-uk.com, such as Senator Leila De Lima wanting to ban social media in the Philippines, John Gokongwei giving Duterte a bulletproof car, Queen Elizabeth II calling Duterte and Trump as blessings to the world, and UK adding Duterte to it history syllabus for high school students.
Here are other fake articles that metro-uk.com wrote about the Philippines.
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Sources: (freemalaysiantoday.com, edition.cnn.com)
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