No, these photos do not all show a subway project in the Philippines

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Six photos have been shared tens of thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook which claim they show a subway project in the Philippines. The claim is misleading; the photos show subway projects in New York, Peru, Glasgow and Los Angeles and only one is related to a project in the Philippines.

The photos were shared in this Facebook post on June 3, 2019.

It has been shared more than 15,000 times.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

Screenshot of Facebook post

Five of the photos show various construction projects and one image shows Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte standing between two trains.

The Tagalog-language caption translates to English as:

"This is my first time to see this kind of project in the Philippines. This is also my first time to see such kind of equipment. This is also my first time to encounter such a president. It's just 3 years but his accomplishments already equate to those that can be done in 10 years. #giantCutterHeadforSubway #buildbuildbuild."

“#buildbuildbuild” refers to the construction of a subway system in greater Manila under Duterte’s flagship infrastructure program “Build, Build, Build”. This government web page shows the status of the program.

The same photos were also shared in this Facebook post alongside a similar claim.

The claim is misleading; the photos show subway projects in New York, Peru, Glasgow and Los Angeles and only one is related to a project in the Philippines.

A reverse search on Google found the photo of Duterte standing between two trains has been doctored from this photo published in an article by Scottish newspaper The Scotsman on April 17, 2017.

The article reports on a planned extension of the subway system in the Scottish city of Glasgow.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored photo (L) with the photo published by The Scotsman (R):

Comparison of doctored image (L) and photo in The Scotsman (R)

Another reverse image search on Google found the second photo in the misleading post was published in this article on US-based transport blog thesource.metro.net on April 21, 2017.

The article reports on the retirement of “Harriet,” a tunnel-boring machine (TBM) used for the excavation of train tunnels in Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The photo caption states: “Part of the TBM used to dig the underground section of the Crenshaw/LAX line. Photo by Juan Ocampo for Metro”.

Below is a comparison of the second photo in the misleading post (L) and the photo from thesource.metro.net (R):

Comparison of image in misleading post (L) and Metro photo (R)

A reverse search for the third photo in the misleading posts found it was published in a photo gallery published here by Talson Solutions, a construction auditing firm.

The photo appears as the fourth photo in the gallery for a project called “NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority”.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the third photo in the misleading posts (L) and the photo published by talsonsolutions.com (R):

Comparison of image in misleading post (L) and Talson Solutions photo (R)

The Talson Solutions photo shows the development of the Second Avenue subway in New York in 2010, as reported here by the New York Times on January 1, 2017.

Another reverse image search found the fourth photo in the misleading posts in the same New York Times article about the Second Avenue subway.

Below is a comparison of the fourth photo in the misleading posts (top) and the New York Times photo (bottom):

Comparison between photo in the misleading posts (top) and the New York Times photo (bottom)

The New York Times photo caption states: “The M.T.A. launched a tunnel boring machine to dig the first phase of the Second Avenue subway at 92nd Street and Second Avenue in May 2010. Credit Richard Perry/The New York Times.”

Another reverse image search for the fifth photo in the misleading posts found it was published in this article on Metro Report International, a UK based transport website, on March 28, 2014.



The article reports plans for a metro line development in Lima, Peru.

Below is a comparison of the fifth photo in the misleading post (L) and the photo published by Metro Report International (R):

Comparison between photo in the misleading posts (L) and Metro Report International photo (R)

The sixth photo in the misleading post is a collage which shows Duterte alongside two photos of construction projects. Below is a screenshot of the photo collage:

Screenshot of photo collage

Another reverse image search found the middle photo in the photo collage was published here by the Philippine News Agency, a government website, on May 30, 2019.

The article reports on the arrival of parts of a tunnel boring machine due to be used for the construction of the greater Manila subway.

Below is a screenshot of the photo in the article:

Screenshot of website

This is the only photo in the misleading post which relates to a Philippine infrastructure project.

Another reverse image search for the photo on the right-hand side of the photo collage found it was published in this article by American weekly magazine Engineering News-Record on July 10, 2017.

The photo caption states: “A look at work on the Second Avenue Subway. Photo Courtesy of AECOM”.

Below is a comparison of the photo in the misleading post (L) and the photo published by Engineering News-Record (R):