The Office of the Vice President (OVP) on Monday condemned the fake deliveries made under Vice President Leni Robredo's name, which were worth more than P100,000.
OVP spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said that the deliveries were delivered to the OVP under a cash-on-delivery (COD) transaction.
"May nagpanggap na si VP Leni at nag multiple orders ng abot P100K+ sa Metromart. Pinadeliver sa OVP na COD," said Gutierrez in the tweet, which attached a photo of one of the orders, which was worth P16,040.
(Someone pretended to be VP Leni at made multiple orders reaching P100K+ on Metromart. It was delivered to the OVP on COD.)
The OVP spokesperson slammed the incident, saying that whoever did this was not thinking about 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!" he said.
(They did not think about the hassle for delivery riders and how it wasted their time. Are they this afraid of us? We will not pay attention to this cheap trick. Fight on!)
According to Gutierrez, they contacted Metromart and were able to cancel the orders. The camp also insisted that the riders should not be charged for what he described as an "ill-advised" prank.
"It is unfortunate that you and the delivery riders had to go through all this hassle because of someone's insensitive and ill-advised idea of a ‘prank.’ Glad to know steps are being taken to avoid similar scams in the future," Gutierrez said in a follow-up tweet.
He also said that the OVP compensated the riders for the two hours they lost because of the scam. The OVP was able to trace the number that made the deliveries and is now investigating the incident further, according to Gutierrez, with initial consultation already made with the office's lawyers.
In a separate statement, Robredo narrated that she was deep in meetings when three delivery riders arrived with more than P100,000 worth of goods.
"When I was told about this, nag alala ako sa delivery riders. Sobrang abala sa kanila. [Baka] akala ng scammers yung burden nasa amin. Hindi iniisip na kinakawawa nila yung riders saka yung mga shoppers nila na nabiktima. Umuulan pa naman kahapon and nabasa sila," Robredo said in her statement.
(When I was told about this, I became worried for the delivery riders. It was a huge inconvenience for them. Maybe the scammers thought the burden would be on us. They did not think about the welfare of the riders and the shoppers that they victimize. It was raining yesterday and they got wet.)
Robredo extended her gratitude to Metromart for the quick return of the items and appealed to those behind the scam to stop such actions, especially amid tough times.
"Sana lang sa panahon ng matinding kagipitan, huwag ng mag isip ng mga panloloko at yung mga maliliit na naman yung mga nabibiktima."
(Hopefully, in such difficult times, stop scamming because smaller businesses become the true victims.)
Metromart said in a statement that all goods have been returned to partner supermarkets without charging the riders.
It is also cooperating with the OVP in their investigation
"We are calling on the public not to scam, prank, and waste time of our delivery riders and shoppers who are working hard to support their families and are risking their lives to safely deliver groceries to Filipino homes during this pandemic," it said in its statement.
