A netizen published a series of four videos in which he claimed some citizens in Muntinlupa received rice as bribe to attend an event in support of Vice President and presidential candidate Leni Robredo earlier this month. A reader asked VERA Files Fact Check to look into the claim.
No evidence was presented by the netizen to corroborate his claim that the distributed rice were bribes. VERA Files Fact Check reached out to the leadership of the barangay where the supposed giveaway took place. He denied the claim.
“Wala namang katotohanan doon sa allegation (There’s no truth in the allegation),” Raffy Sevilla, captain of Barangay Sucat, Muntinlupa, told VERA Files Fact Check in an interview.
Sevilla said the videos show employees of Barangay Sucat distributing rice to co-workers and volunteers on March 1. The rice is part of their hazard allowance from him for working amid heightened restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contrary to the circulating claims on social media, the activity was neither related to Robredo’s visit to Muntinlupa nor part of the city’s 27th establishment anniversary that day, he said.
Read the full story on VERA Files Fact Check.
