Did former Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman keep a donation box full of money in her old house’s garage? This is what several online articles have been claiming and they have gone viral on social media, particularly on Facebook.
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The story has been shared to Facebook by pages such as “President Duterte Supporters,” whose post has gained over 6,300 shares, “Tatay Digong,” “Duterte Warriors,” “Kilusang Bagong Lipunan,” and “Marcos Warriors,” whose posts have received over a thousand of shares.
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Based on these Facebook shares, the story has been published by pinoythinking.online and duterteworld.com, but both articles pointed to du30newsinfo.com as their source, although we could not find the same story on the said source site.
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According to the story, the new owner of Soliman’s new house turned over a box full of money to the office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development on March 6. The box was believed to have been a donation box filled with different bills and coins from Arab countries, the US, and Hong Kong, leading to the conclusion that these could have come from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
The new home owner, named Arturo Vanguardia, said that he bought a house in Tandang Sora, Quezon City from Soliman after she sold it upon her resignation from her government position last June. Vanguardia said his helper found the donation box along with rotten clothes and things, which the article said were believed to be part of the relief goods.
However, there are no stories from other sources that could verify the story about Soliman and the donation box in her former residence.
A tipster also alerted us to the source of the photo of the donation box used in the articles shared by Duterte and Marcos Facebook fan pages. The photo actually originated from one of the stories published on Angkor.co in 2013, entitled “A Story of a Donation Box.”
This showed just how fake the story is about Soliman. While it is true that over P2 million worth of relief goods were spoiled “due to improper handling” and there were a lot of questions raised as to how the Yolanda funds was spent, the story about a donation box filled with money found in the garage of Soliman’s old house is simply untrue.
Sources: ( newsinfo.inquirer.net , manilatimes.net )
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