Two Facebook posts claimed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is giving away free housing to Filipinos. These are scams.
Posted on June 9, the graphics carried by these posts claimed:
“PBBM LIBRENG PABAHAY | walang babayaran kahit Piso | MAG MESSAGE SA AMIN (President Bongbong Marcos free housing | you won’t pay even a single peso | send us a message)”
Houses provided under the Marcos administration’s Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Housing (4PH) Program are not free, but the government provides subsidies for recipients.
There has been no announcement about the alleged free housing in Marcos’ official Facebook page nor in any official government sites, yet people are being taken in by the bogus posts.
“Paano maka-avail ng pabahay (How can I avail of this housing),” a netizen asked in the comments section. “Ako po wala bahay umupa po ako (I don’t have a house, I’m renting), another netizen commented.
The person behind the scam replied to these comments, saying they should send a private message to get more information about the supposed free housing. This is a bait: the netizen lures people into joining a Telegram group promising to grow people’s deposits tenfold via GCash trading.
Other bogus Facebook accounts also lure people into cryptocurrency by telling netizens to send a friend request to a specific person who supposedly helped them buy houses and put up a grocery store.
VERA Files Fact Check has debunked other scams with the same modus.
The fake posts that appeared on FB groups MEDICAL ASSISTANCE PILIPINAS and Pcso 6/58, 6/55, 6/49, 6/45, 6/42 Lotto Result Draw 9PM garnered 919 reactions, 2,451 comments and 30 shares. These appeared after House Speaker Martin Romualdez pledged P10 billion for the 4PH program.
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(Editor's Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)