After the Iloilo City Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) received a phone call from someone purporting to be recently-appointed Undersecretary Eduardo Año, city officials are warning the public of a scam where they may be asked to wire money or send cellphone load.

“These people are just using different numbers and posing as high-ranking officials of the DILG and were asking for cellphone load,” said City DILG head, Atty. Ferdinand Panes, who also mentioned two mayors based in the Western Visayas reportedly receiving similar calls, where the individual requested money for a fire truck.

“Please be aware of this scam,” he implored.

“There was a person who called our office identifying himself as ‘Secretary Año,’” the local DILG official recounted. “I was already in doubt because Año [was] appointed as undersecretary and not as secretary; and, in my 24 years in service, there was no one who directly called me.”

“He directed me to call Mayor Jose Espinosa and tell him to call him back,” Panes added.

He said, after getting in contact with the regional DILG, they informed him the call was likely a scam./WDJ