Atty Barry Gutierrez shows a photo of the fake order details. Photo from Barry Gutierrez's Twitter page
MANILA — The office of Vice President Leni Robredo is now investigating who made grocery orders worth P100.000 and sent it to their office on Monday, in what appeared to be a fake order scam.
An online poser who pretended to be Robredo placed multiple cash-on-delivery orders worth P100,000 from MetroMart, an online grocery platform, and had these addressed to the Office of the Vice President in Quezon City, said her spokesman Atty. Barry Gutierrez.
He said the OVP got the phone number used to book the deliveries and is "investigating further."
"There has been some initial consultation with our lawyers, but specific options will be discussed once we get more information on who may be responsible," he said.
People who book fake orders by posing as someone else could face 6 years to 12 years of imprisonment for identity theft, the National Bureau of Investigation recently said.
Gutierrez lamented that the scammers did not even think of the welfare of the delivery riders.
"Hindi na inisip ang mga delivery rider na hinassle at inaksaya ang oras. Ganito na ba talaga sila katakot sa atin? Dedma sa ganitong kacheapan. Laban lang! #LabanLeni2022," he said on Twitter.
(They did not think of the delivery riders who were inconvenienced and had their time wasted. Are they this afraid of us? We won't pay attention to this cheap trick. Fight on!)
Robredo's office was able to arrange with the delivery platform to have the orders canceled and the items returned, Gutierrez said.
"We specifically insisted that nothing be charged to the delivery riders. We are super thankful to them for their assistance and cooperation," he said.
The Vice President "gave the riders something to compensate them for the two hours they lost because of this scam," Gutierrez said.
Months ago, in an interview with journalist Karen Davila, Robredo said she personally manages her household and orders her groceries online.
In July, 5 food delivery drivers were allegedly scammed when they were asked to bring pizza, chicken and lechon to the office of another presidential aspirant, Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso.