Marcos did not sign universal social pension for all senior citizens into law yet

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The proposed P1,500 monthly universal social pension for all senior citizens under Senate Bill No. 215 has not yet been passed into law

Claim: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the P1,500 monthly universal social pension for all senior citizens into law.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: A YouTube channel named Balitang Ayuda is using an AI-generated video to spread the false claim. It has gained over 400 views but has been shared by multiple accounts on Facebook which has rapidly garnered hundreds of reactions and comments.

According to the video’s title, Marcos already approved the P1,500 universal social pension for all senior citizens. This could already potentially disinform viewers even without watching the accompanying video.

Meanwhile, the video content shows inconsistencies with the title and declared a P6,000 social pension instead.

The facts: The claim likely pertains to Senate Bill No. 215, an act granting a universal social pension to all senior citizens aged 60 and above, authored by Senator Risa Hontiveros. Section 2 of the bill sets the minimum monthly social pension at not less than P1,500. As of writing, the bill has not been signed by Marcos yet.

Using AI-detection tools, the video received a rating of 81% in Sightengine and 99% in Hive Moderation, which means that it was likely generated using AI.

The video also has the word ‘Veo’ overlayed in its lower right. This is Google Veo’s watermark, a text-to-video AI tool which creates narrated video clips based on written prompts. YouTube, however, already labeled the post as “altered or synthetic content” which pertains to its mandatory disclosure system for AI content. 

Google Veo has been frequently used in recent false contents that Rappler has debunked, including the following:

Currently, the social pension for senior citizens only covers indigent individuals at P1,000 monthly, as stated under Republic Act No. 11916, an act which doubled the social pension of indigent senior citizens when it lapsed into law in July 2022. – Princess Leah Sagaad/Rappler.com

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