A number of Facebook (FB) groups are offering netizens “slots” in the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) food stamp program. This so-called online registration is not authorized by the DSWD.
Shared as early as June 15, at least five posts bore graphics and links that supposedly help netizens join the DSWD’s WALANG GUTOM 2027: Food provision through Strategic Transfer and Alternative Measures Program (Food STAMP). The graphics illicitly used DSWD’s logo and photos of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos and DSWD Sec. Rex Gatchalian.
The accompanying text in one of the graphics read:
“ALAMIN! Bagong Programa Ng DSWD 3K Per Month Ipamimigay Bukod Pa Sa 4PS PAANO MAGPALISTA? CLICK NIYO LANG ITONG LINK AT MAGPA REGISTER (FIND OUT! DSWD’s New Program 3K Per Month Will Be Given Apart From 4PS HOW TO REGISTER? JUST CLICK THIS LINK AND REGISTER).”
These posts shared in FB groups 4PS ALL REGION (created on Jan. 17 as 4PS GROUP CHAT) and DSWD NEWS AND UPDATE (Dec. 21, 2020) carried links to websites where netizens are supposed to register.
The registration links in the posts only lead netizens to e-commerce sites and blog site
libreng-ayuda-2022.blogspot.com. VERA Files previously fact-checked another post from an impostor DSWD page that directed netizens to the same blog.
(Read Impostor DSWD page posts FAKE ‘ayuda’ for registered SIM card users)
These posts are fake. The target beneficiaries of the program are to be taken from DSWD’s Listahanan 3, not through online registration in these bogus groups.
“The target beneficiaries of the program will be taken from the bottom 1 million households from the Listahanan 3 generated through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction,” the DSWD clarified in a June 23 email to VERA Files.
Listahanan is “an information management system that establishes a database of poor households” nationwide which serves as the government’s basis for determining beneficiaries for various programs and services.
Updates about the DSWD’s programs are posted only on their official website, social media accounts and regional FB pages.
Still, netizens fell for the wrong posts, many of them asking in the comments section how to register and hoping to be chosen as beneficiaries.
The fake registration posts circulated two days after Gatchalian announced that Marcos approved the pilot run and implementation of the program.
The DSWD further explained in the email to VERA Files that the program seeks to provide monetary-based assistance in the form of an electronic card loaded with food credits. The amount of P3,000 will be added per month for three years which can be used to purchase select commodities from DSWD-accredited stores.
Set to begin in July, the program’s pilot test is expected to benefit 3,000 households in Manila, Isabela, Camarines Sur, Negros Occidental, and Siargao Island.
VERA Files Fact Check previously provided more context to a video that circulated last month. (Read Video on DSWD’s P3,000 ‘Food Stamp’ credit NEEDS CONTEXT)
A netizen and FB pages 4P’s All Region Updates (created on June 14, 2023), GROUP ADMIN (June 18, 2023) and Libreng Tablet at Cellphone (Aug. 8, 2022 as Libreng Pabahay Pilipinas) posted the graphics, collectively garnering 5,899 reactions, 4,297 comments and 318 shares.
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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.)