A video with nearly 200,000 views on Facebook claims that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has opened online registration for a food stamp program for all Filipinos. This is fake. The clip was very likely generated using artificial intelligence.
Published on Nov. 20, the 16-second reel featured a man in a white polo and red vest announcing that all Filipinos may register online to get P3,000 a month in food aid:
“Food stamp. Bukas na ang online registration para sa lahat ng Filipino. P3,000 bawat pamilya monthly. Kahit hindi 4Ps member ay pwedeng sumali dito. Ang registration link ay makikita sa dito sa post namin at comment section. Magregister na. Magfollow dito sa page namin MSWD News Update at share mo ang balitang ito.”
(Food stamp. Online registration is now open for all Filipinos. P3,000 per family every month. Even those who are not 4Ps members can join. The registration link can be found in our post and in the comment section. Register now. Follow our page MSWD News Update and share this news.)
Several netizens in the comment section appear to have believed the clip, with some asking for qualifications and procedures for the registration. The publisher, two-week-old FB page MSWD News Updates, provided a link to a blog riddled with ads and asked for personal information such as one’s phone number and address, a common tactic used by scammers.
Additionally, in MSWD News Updates‘s video, placed in the background of the man was a DSWD press release from Nov. 18 about the Walang Gutom Program, an initiative aimed at reducing hunger in low-income Filipino families.
In an advisory posted on Nov. 24, the official FB page of DSWD’s Walang Gutom Program debunked the video. It read:
“Ang DSWD at ang Walang Gutom Program ay walang anumang ugnayan sa ‘MSWD News Update’ na gumagamit ng AI para maglabas ng maling impormasyon. Mag-ingat at huwag basta-basta maniwala.”
It further clarified that the program is not accepting online applications. Instead, beneficiaries of the Walang Gutom Program are selected through Listahanan 3, an information system that identifies poor households nationwide, followed by verification.
Experts say clip is likely AI-generated
VERA Files reached out to the Deepfake Analysis Unit (DAU) of the India-based Trusted Information Alliance to verify the authenticity of the video. An expert from DAU noted that the shape of the man’s lower teeth tends to change over time, and in some frames, it forms an unnatural white patch, a sign that the video was tampered with AI.
DAU ran the spurious clip through various AI-detection tools. While the video analysis indicated that no deepfakes were detected in the visuals, results from Hiya Audio Intelligence and Aurigin.ai, a Swiss deep-tech company with an advanced audio deepfake detection engine, indicated that the audio in the clip was likely generated or modified through AI.
“Overall, this video, based on tool results and manual observations, does not look authentic,” a DAU expert said.
Earlier this month, the Social Weather Stations released results from a poll last September which found that the number of Filipino families who experienced being hungry and having nothing to eat went up in the past three months.
The fake video by MSWD News Update (newly created on Nov. 14), uploaded twice by the page, has so far garnered over 1,900 reactions, 800 shares, and 400 comments collectively.
