HOAX: P6,000 ‘monthly’ pension for senior citizens

Claim: An article offers a supposed “guide” to claiming a “P6,000 monthly pension for senior citizens” as a “gift” from President Rodrigo Duterte.

It only contains a video with a “News Beat Social” watermark.

The article in the domain dailyguidanze.info also doesn’t have any timestamp, but is full of ads. It was spotted by Facebook’s Claim Check dashboard as early as July 16, and has been shared over 26,300 times as of this posting.

Domains that contain similar content include pinoyofwnow.com and buzzhivetv.com.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has been providing pension for the elderly for years now. This pension is worth P6,000 a year, or P500 a month – not P6,000 a month.

The pension is part of DSWD’s Social Pension Program for Indigent Senior Citizens, which started in 2011, years before Duterte became president. This is in line with Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, passed under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. (FAST FACTS: What benefits are senior citizens entitled to?)

The embedded video is from a “News Beat Social” report by United News International, uploaded on YouTube in February 2017. It reported on the same senior citizen pensions, and accurately mentioned that it amounts to P500 per month. 

The report also said that 2.8 million senior citizens benefited from the pension program in 2017, more than double versus the year before.

When trying to visit the homepage of the dubious domain dailyguidanze.info, you will see a page only featuring the story of “The Scorpion and The Crocodile.” It does not contain any further information about the website. The same goes for the two other domains.

In addition, a few seconds after watching the video, the user would be asked to share the article first before being able to watch the rest of the video. After clicking the button for it, a pop-up window would appear with the tag #6kpension automatically on the post, and would be shared from a supposed “DSWD Official” app which may compromise or improperly use the user’s login credentials. – Michael Bueza/Rappler.com

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