Robredo: Delivery riders affected most by prank orders delivered to OVP

MANILA, Philippines — The riders who serviced a fake order delivered to Vice President Leni Robredo were able to return the items to the Metromart Supermarket free of charge, Robredo said Tuesday. 

This comes after her office found itself on the receiving end of a fake order scam after three delivery riders arrived with more than P100,000 worth of goods from three different merchants just the day before. The orders were made on a cash-on-delivery basis.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the presidential candidate hit the perpetrators of the fake order, adding that she was at her office when the riders showed up.

"When I was told about this, I was worried about the delivery riders. The burden is on them," she wrote in Filipino. 

"Scammers think we will be the most affecred. They don't think about the riders and then their shoppers who have been victimized. It was also raining yesterday and they got wet."

The Office of the Vice President said it was now investigating the incident.

Metromart in a separate statement added that it was cooperating with the OVP in its investigation as well as increasing its security and fraud detection measures against scammers. 

"We are calling on the public not to scam, prank, and waste the 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," Metromart said. 

"Hopefully in times of great crisis, we don't think about scams that affect regular people who are the victims," Robredo also said. 

"Are they really that scared of us?" Barry Gutierrez, Robredo's spokesperson, also said in a tweet, calling the move "cheap." — Franco Luna