A video with tens of thousands of views falsely claims the Philippines is "debt-free" after outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte settled a multi-billion dollar loan in May, a development that the video accuses local media of ignoring. However, data from the Philippine treasury show the claim is baseless, while various news organisations reported on the loan payment that only covered a fraction of the country's total debt.

"The Philippines is now debt-free! Duterte settled them! But this was not reported by ABS, GMA, Rappler!" reads the Tagalog-language title of a video posted on YouTube on May 22.

The video, which has more than 54,000 views, shows a woman making the same claim.

She accuses media organisations ABS-CBN, GMA News and Rappler of "bias" against Duterte and says they failed to report that his outgoing government settled a 300-billion peso ($5.6 billion) loan to the country's central bank in May.

"You are so biased. You don't want Filipinos to know about Duterte's achievements," she says.

Duterte's term ends in June, when he will be succeeded by Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the country's late dictator, who won a landslide victory in the presidential election in May.

The same video was also shared on Facebook here and on a blog here.

Comments suggest some people were misled by the video's false claim.

"I only learned through your vlog that all the Philippines' debt has already been paid off! We never saw this on the news, good for you for being an...

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