Tools and starting points to follow government spending, disaster aid, and nonprofit activity
in the Philippines. Focus on where funds are supposed to go, then look for gaps on the ground.
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PH Government portals and procurement
Start with official agency and procurement sites for contracts, budgets, and project lists.
(Plug in the latest URLs you trust as you build this out.)
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Disaster & social protection programs
Track relief programs, cash transfers, and poverty-alleviation initiatives by agency, region, and year.
Procurement
Disaster aid
Social protection
Use these prompts as a base when filing FOI requests in the Philippines. Adjust agency names,
time ranges, and program titles to fit your case.
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Template – Program awards & monitoring
Request award documents, implementing partners, monitoring/spot-check reports, and any audit findings
tied to a specific poverty or disaster program.
FOI Philippines
Monitoring reports
Audit findings
Pair government data with local reporting and community knowledge. Look for coverage of
delayed projects, missing aid, or “ghost” beneficiaries.
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Local and regional news outlets
Track outlets that routinely cover governance, disaster response, and corruption in your province or city.
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Civil society & watchdog groups
NGOs and research groups often have reports and fieldwork that document gaps between paper and reality.
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The National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA), the official social action arm of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. Documents its role in anti-corruption platforms and civil society accountability work. Use as a reference point for NGO accountability in post-disaster reconstruction contexts, particularly Typhoon Haiyan and subsequent disaster response cases.
Focus on disaster recovery funds, federal transfers, and local contracts. Follow the money from
federal awards down to municipalities and implementing nonprofits.
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Federal awards touching Puerto Rico
Use US-wide tools (below) and filter for “Puerto Rico” as recipient or place of performance,
then cross-check with local disclosures.
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PR government transparency and contracting portals
Look for official procurement and budget portals listing contracts, vendors, and project descriptions.
Note any gaps between what’s awarded and what is visible on the ground.
Disaster recovery
Federal transfers
Local contracts
Combine local records requests with federal oversight material (IG reports, audits, enforcement actions)
to see where projects failed or money went sideways.
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Records requests to PR agencies
Ask for contract files, amendments, subrecipient lists, monitoring/inspection reports, and any findings
tied to a specific program or award.
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Oversight board and IG reporting
Check oversight bodies and inspectors general for prior investigations or warnings related to the same
vendors or nonprofits.
Federal award and vendor databases are the backbone for following US poverty, housing, and disaster money.
Use them to identify who is paid to do what, where, and when.
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USAspending.gov
Search by recipient, program, city, or keyword to see grants and contracts tied to your target program or nonprofit.
Export results to filter by year, place, or amount.
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SAM.gov / entity registration
Look up vendors and nonprofits receiving federal money. Confirm registration, exclusions, and related entities.
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FEMA and disaster aid portals
For disaster-related cases, search FEMA awards, programs, and public assistance projects tied to your location.
USAspending
SAM.gov
FEMA
Trace money flows between political actors, NGOs, contractors, and aid organizations. Use these databases to cross-reference donor networks, federal contracts, and congressional appropriations.
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The most comprehensive database of U.S. campaign finance, lobbying expenditures, and political donor tracking. Essential for any case file involving federal contracts or congressional appropriations.
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Searchable database of political donations and donor networks. Useful for identifying connections between donors, political campaigns, and nonprofit organizations. Cross-reference with OpenSecrets for a fuller picture.
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Official federal source for campaign finance disclosures. All FEC filings are public record. Use as the primary citation source when referencing political donations — the authoritative record that holds up in any accountability context.
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Maintained by the National Institute on Money in Politics. Tracks campaign finance at the state level — filling the gap that OpenSecrets and the FEC leave for state legislators, governors, and local officials. Critical for documenting poverty program contracting at the state level.
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State-level political finance data with a focus on making complex donor networks accessible and searchable. Useful for identifying recurring donor patterns across multiple election cycles and connecting political money to specific policy outcomes affecting low-income communities.
Campaign finance
State-level
Donor networks
FEC filings
File focused FOIA requests for the specific awards and programs you already identified. The goal:
get award files, monitoring, and enforcement history in one place.
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Federal FOIA requests
Ask for grant/contract award documents, scopes of work, subrecipient lists, monitoring reports,
and any audits or enforcement actions tied to a named program or recipient.
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State and local records laws
Use state public records laws to see how federal money was passed through to counties, cities,
or local nonprofits.
Combine data with watchdog reporting and specialized tools that flag suspicious awards or repeat offenders.
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Investigative outlets & local media
Map out outlets that regularly cover poverty programs, housing authorities, disaster aid,
and nonprofit scandals in your city or state.
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Watchdog databases & research tools
Track prior investigations into the same charities, vendors, or shell nonprofits you’re seeing in award data.
These are widely used OSINT hubs and tool indexes to help investigators, journalists, and researchers
find people, organizations, documents, and patterns across the open web.
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Interactive map of OSINT tools organized by topic (people, social media, geolocation, company records, and more).
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Searchable table of OSINT tools and data sources, with filters for category, cost, and use case.
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Maintained, curated list of free and actionable OSINT tools, techniques, and training resources.
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Focused list of tools for investigating across Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, and other social platforms.
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OSINT and investigative tools selected specifically for reporters and newsrooms.
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Training and tools aimed at journalists doing online investigations (mix of free and paid).
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Visual link analysis tool for mapping relationships between people, organizations, domains, and social accounts. Industry standard for network investigations.
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Search engine for internet-connected devices and infrastructure. Useful for identifying exposed servers, cameras, and systems tied to organizations under investigation.
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Automated OSINT reconnaissance tool that aggregates data from 100+ sources on a target domain, IP, email, or name. Available as open source or hosted.
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Search engine and data archive for leaked databases, dark web content, Tor, I2P, and historical web data. Useful for finding exposed records and breach data.
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Check whether an email address or phone number has appeared in known data breaches. Useful for verifying identities and uncovering digital footprints.
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Look up domain registration records to identify who owns a website, when it was registered, and associated contact information.
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Find and verify professional email addresses associated with any domain or organization. Useful for identifying key contacts at nonprofits and companies.
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AI-powered tool that summarizes YouTube videos (public hearings, press conferences, meetings) in seconds with clickable timeline links. Recommended by GIJN 2025.
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World’s largest open database of companies and corporate structures. Search 200M+ companies across 140 jurisdictions to trace shell companies and beneficial owners.
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Investigative data platform from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Search leaked documents, corporate records, and sanctions lists across 300+ datasets.
People search
Social media
Geolocation
Company records
Open web
Tools for verifying documents, images, videos, and metadata — essential for confirming authenticity,
detecting manipulation, and preserving digital evidence in investigative work.
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Browser-based image analysis tool using Error Level Analysis (ELA) to detect altered or manipulated photos.
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Free online image forensics toolkit — clone detection, noise analysis, magnifier, and metadata viewer.
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Browser extension for verifying videos and images — reverse image search, metadata extraction, keyframe analysis. Used by major newsrooms.
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Extract and read EXIF metadata from images — GPS coordinates, camera model, timestamps, and more.
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Compare two documents, PDFs, or text files side-by-side to spot edits, insertions, or deletions in official records.
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Access archived versions of websites and documents — useful for capturing deleted content, changed claims, or scrubbed pages.
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Retrieve Google, Bing, and other cached versions of web pages that may have been altered or taken down.
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Scan files, URLs, and documents for malware and suspicious content before opening unknown attachments from sources.
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Browser extension for instant reverse image search across Google, Bing, Yandex, and TinEye simultaneously.
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Open-source tool for automatically archiving social media posts, videos, and web pages as evidence before they disappear.
Image verification
Video forensics
Metadata
Document comparison
Web archiving
⚠️ Responsible Use & TruthDrop.io Enforcement Policy
The tools and techniques on this page are provided exclusively for legitimate investigative, journalistic, and research purposes involving public figures, public organizations, and matters of genuine public interest.
By accessing and using this section, you agree to the following:
1. Lawful use only. You are solely responsible for ensuring your use complies with all applicable laws in your jurisdiction, platform terms of service, and any professional or ethical standards that govern your work. Do not use these methods to locate, monitor, harass, or contact private individuals without a clear and lawful basis for doing so.
2. No unethical conduct. Use of these resources to engage in gossip, personal vendettas, harassment, or any activity designed to harm, defame, embarrass, or destroy the reputation of any individual or organization — outside of documented, evidence-based public interest reporting — is strictly prohibited.
3. No malicious sharing. Sharing, distributing, or publishing information obtained through these tools with the intent to tarnish, destroy, or cause harm to any person or organization — without verified factual basis and public interest justification — is a violation of TruthDrop.io's platform standards.
4. Enforcement. TruthDrop.io takes unethical practices seriously. Any custodian, investigator, or platform user found to be using these resources for gossip, harassment, malicious targeting, or conduct inconsistent with ethical investigative standards will have their access revoked immediately and permanently, without appeal. Egregious violations may be referred to appropriate legal authorities.
When in doubt about whether your use is appropriate, stop and consult a legal professional before proceeding.
1. Search patterns to find accounts
Use these patterns in Google or directly in platform search boxes:
"topic" + journalist Twitter
"topic" + investigator Facebook
"country" + investigative reporter
"topic" + watchdog NGO + Twitter
"topic" + advocacy group + Instagram
Examples:
Philippines corruption investigative journalist Twitter
Puerto Rico housing advocacy group Facebook
2. Finding the right person or organization
Combine topic + role + platform for more targeted results:
"topic" + "official" + Twitter
"topic" + "media" + Instagram
"topic" + "foundation" + Facebook
"topic" + "NGO" + LinkedIn
On X/Twitter, you can also filter by words in the bio and location to narrow down to the right accounts.
3. Finding public contact emails
Once you have a name or handle, try these search patterns to surface publicly listed press or media contacts:
"@handle" + email
"organization name" + "media contact"
"organization name" + "press" + email
4. Optional OSINT tools for deeper work
For deeper investigations, the following tools can look up social media accounts or emails. Use only in contexts appropriate for your jurisdiction and ethical obligations.
Find social accounts linked to an email address.
Look up accounts by username, email, or phone number.
Techniques and workflows for social media investigation, aimed at journalists.
Social media
Account discovery
Email lookup
OSINT
Journalism
Social Media Account Verification Process — follow each step in sequence and document all red flags before reaching a final determination.
1. Check account age and history
Newly created accounts claiming to represent established organizations or officials are a major red flag. Look for:
- Account creation date (visible on Twitter/X profiles; use Twepoch to convert Twitter IDs to dates)
- Consistent posting history over months or years, not a sudden burst of activity
- Gaps in activity that don’t match the organization’s known timeline
- Username changes — check via Wayback Machine for cached versions of old profile pages
2. Cross-reference with official sources
Always verify a social account against the organization’s own official channels:
- Does the organization’s official website link to this account?
- Does the account link back to the official website in its bio?
- Is the account referenced in press releases, official documents, or verified news coverage?
- For government officials: check official government directory pages for listed social handles
3. Evaluate profile signals
Authentic accounts for organizations and public figures typically show consistent signals:
- Profile photo: Use reverse image search (Google Images, TinEye) to check if the photo is stolen or stock
- Follower quality: A large following with very low engagement, or followers that are mostly bots, is a warning sign
- Verification badges: Platform verification (blue/gold checkmarks) is a signal but not definitive — paid verification can be purchased on X/Twitter
- Bio consistency: Does the bio match known information about the person or org? Check for spelling variations of well-known names
- Language and tone: Does the writing style match other verified communications from this person or org?
4. Use dedicated verification tools
Analyzes a Twitter/X account and scores the likelihood it is a bot based on activity patterns, network, and content.
Search public posts across platforms to find all mentions of a name or handle and assess posting patterns.
Check whether a profile photo has been used elsewhere online, which can reveal stolen or stock images.
Convert a Twitter/X account ID to its exact creation date to verify account age.
View historical snapshots of profile pages to detect username changes, deleted content, or account history.
Check whether the same username exists across multiple platforms — helps confirm or rule out a consistent identity.
5. Document your verification steps
For any account you rely on as a source, record your verification process: what you checked, what you found, and when. This protects the integrity of your investigation and provides a defensible record if your findings are later challenged.
Account verification
Bot detection
Source credibility
Reverse image search
OSINT