DSWD does not distribute ‘educational assistance’ directly to schools

Claim: The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will provide educational assistance on a school-to-school basis.

Several posts with the claim have been made by the Facebook page “DSWD 2nd Batch Scholarships 2022-2023,” created last August 13. 

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: A post with the said claim has around 601 reactions, 1,100 comments, and 3,200 shares, as of writing.

The bottom line: The DSWD has not announced that distribution of educational assistance has been redirected to schools. You cannot receive DSWD educational assistance from your school.

Untrustworthy: The fake Facebook page with the false claim is unverified and unaffiliated with DSWD. The link it posts redirects to a Blogspot website (now called Blogger) that asks users to hand over personal information. Similar fake pages have already been fact-checked by Rappler.

The department already issued a public advisory warning people against bogus pages last August 22. The department usually uses Google forms for the online registration, but as of writing, it is no longer accepting responses.

Official announcement: In an ABS-CBN TeleRadyo interview last September 12, DSWD Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez announced that they are no longer accepting online applications for educational assistance but will continue to process until September 24 applications they’ve already received. 

To avoid getting misled by fake pages, get your information from the department’s official Facebook and Twitter pages. – Pola Regalario/Rappler.com

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