No, a new Philippine law does not waive payment for a number of government documents for ‘everyone’
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on May 31, 2019 at 07:00
- 3 min read
- By AFP Philippines
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The misleading post has been shared more than 500 times since it was posted here on May 21, 2019.
It has also been shared more than 500 times here and with a different caption making the same claim here and here.
Here is a sceenshot of the post:
The post, when translated from Tagalog to English, says:
“GOOD NEWS TO EVERYONE. Wow pres DO30 is so brilliant, here you go to those who want free stuff”
“pres DO30” refers to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who was elected in 2016.
The graphic included in the post, when translated from Tagalog to English, says:
"Under RA 11261, the following documents from the government are now free: Village clearance, birth certificate, marriage certificate, medical certificate, unified multipurpose ID, NBI clearance, police clearance, Tax Identification No, TOR issued by SUC"
“RA 11261” is Republic Act 11261, which was signed into law by Duterte on April 10, 2019.
According to RA 11261, government agencies “shall not collect” issuing fees or charges from people who are first time jobseekers and need the documents for an employment application. Applicants can only take advantage of the waiver once.
Below is a screenshot of the law’s conditions:
Below is a screenshot showing which documents are issued free of charge:
More than a dozen other posts shared the graphic which lists the free documents, but does not note the law’s eligibility requirements.
Two of those posts can be seen here and here.
Here are screengrabs of them:
The status of this post, when translated to English, says “DUTERTE’s MOVES, WOW!”
The caption above the graphic, when translated to English, says: "It's irritating PRESIDENT DUTERTE IS SO GOOD ALL OF HIS PLANS ARE FOR THE COUNTRY. This is less stress for the masses"
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