FALSE: Angat Buhay program provided P2.23 daily for 155,000 families

At a glance

• Claim: Leni Robredo’s “Angat Buhay” anti-poverty program provided P2.23 daily for 155,000 families in 2018.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: It is an inaccurate measure of the program’s assistance to divide the total amount of money spent by the total number of beneficiaries.
• Why we fact-checked this: Despite being posted first in 2018, this claim has gained over 21,000 shares and 21,000 interactions as well as 1,100 comments, as of writing.

Complete details

A Facebook post from 2018 said that Vice President Leni Robredo’s Angat Buhay program provided P2.23 pesos a day for 155,000 families of five in 2018. 

The Facebook user said that he was a collegiate-level Mathematics instructor. He explained that he arrived at this value by first dividing the program’s total cost of aid (P252 million) by the total number of families that benefitted (155,000), and then again by two years, since the program began in 2016.

In his post, he also mentioned that P2.23 was not even enough to purchase candy in the Philippines. Thus, the project of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) supposedly hardly provided any relief for the country’s marginalized.

This claim has gained over 21,000 shares and 21,000 interactions, as well as 1,100 comments, as of writing. The post remains popular on Facebook as it continues to gain engagements. 

This claim is false. 

It is an inaccurate measure of the program’s assistance to divide the total amount of money spent by the total number of beneficiaries. The Angat Buhay program does not only provide cash assistance; its funds are used to construct infrastructure and create services that provide the poor with access to basic human needs.

The Angat Buhay program deploys food and nutrition programs, healthcare consultations, public education projects, housing needs, disaster relief services, and women empowerment and rural development initiatives.

For example, the OVP’s 2018 annual accomplishment report lists the following as some of Angat Buhay’s projects: P95,576,946 worth of school infrastructure, P31,885,545 worth of livelihood programs, P23,624,819 worth of nutrition programs, capacity building activities, and play gardens, P17,359,006 worth of healthcare resources and facilities, as well as P12,307,583.65 worth of transitory shelters for Marawi City.

In the evaluation of the OVP’s performance in 2018, the Commission on Audit noted that the OVP was able to achieve and implement 194% of its target projects, act upon 115% of its target requests, and satisfy or exceed 110% of completed projects by the end of 2018.

The data used in the false claim were based on numbers Robredo said in a statement during the second quarter of 2018. Although the program did provide over P252 million worth of resources for 155,000 families at the time, the program was able to mobilize over P300 million worth of resources for more than 374,000 beneficiaries by the end of 2018.

However, the misleading post continues to accumulate interactions in 2021, even though more recent data regarding the program has already been published. – Danna Gonsalves/Rappler.com

Danna Gonsalves is a Rappler intern. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s internship program here.

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