No Philippine cash assistance programme 'based on birth month'

The false announcement was shared as a graphic on a Facebook group called "DSWD Cash Assistance Update" on September 3.

It bears the DSWD logo and urges people to sign up for a purported anti-hunger programme where they are eligible to receive a minimum 7,000 pesos ($120) monthly allowance.

The graphic also features an image of an elderly woman who appears to be receiving cash assistance.

The caption goes on to say amounts vary depending on the birth month of the beneficiary.

"Choose your birth month and you will receive the prize according to your birth month," it reads.

Those born in May, June or December could apparently receive higher amounts of up to 30,000 pesos.

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Screenshot of the false post, taken on September 8, 2023

The Facebook post does not include a registration link but many users engaged with the fake announcement by commenting their birth month.

"I'm a single mother. I need to sign up to send my child to school. I'm born in October, please," one user wrote.

Another user said: "I'm born in March, please sign up for me."

The graphic was shared with the same caption in other Facebook groups with over 970,000 combined followers, including here, here and here.

However, no such cash assistance programme exists, according to the DSWD.

"It's totally fake," DSWD spokesman Romel Lopez told AFP on September 7.

A search of the DSWD website found no trace of any anti-hunger programme doling out cash based on one's birth month (archived link).

The agency's conditional cash transfer programme provides financial assistance to the country's poorest households to send their children to schools and health centers (archived link).

A food stamp programme called "Walang Gutom 2027" is also being piloted this year by the agency to give the country's poorest households 3,000 pesos worth of food credits (archived link).

The photo of an elderly woman receiving cash was actually a DSWD handout photo published in a November 2021 news article by the state-run Philippine News Agency about the DSWD's social pension programme (archived link).

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Screenshot comparison of photo used in false post (left) and photo uploaded by the Philippine News Agency (right)

DSWD spokesman Lopez also advised the public to disregard information from online sites not managed by the agency.

Its official Facebook page features a blue verification badge and was created on September 7, 2010 (archived links here and here).

AFP has previously debunked fake cash handout programs circulating in the Philippines here, here and here.