Social Welfare Secretary Erwin Tulfo has warned loan sharks against accepting pawned Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) cash cards, saying it is a criminal offense to do so.
“I would like to take this opportunity to warn the loan sharks. Accepting those pawned 4Ps cash cards is a crime,” Tulfo said in a television interview.
He said some loan sharks are charging 4Ps beneficiaries 20 to 40 percent of the entire cash assistance from the national government.
“That’s against the law. You could be jailed if we catch you doing this,” he said.
Tulfo earlier said almost a million “undeserving” beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer program will be delisted.
Families who are without eligible household members or who have already met the self-sufficient stage will be delisted.
The vacated slots will be given to new beneficiaries as many applicants are on the waiting list.
Tulfo said the review—in compliance with the order of President Ferdinand Marcos to cleanse the list—will take about a month to finish.
Marcos also underscored the need to hasten the release of the national IDs as these will facilitate the efficient distribution of ayuda.
“Things like the giving of the ayuda, all of these things that we are trying for, going to digitize the bureaucracy…Having their national ID [ensures] a good database for the government,” the President said.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the IDs, either in physical form or in electronic form, will be available “before the end of the year.”
Balisacan said 92 million Filipinos are eligible to receive the national IDs but only over 10 million cards have been delivered nationwide as of April 30, 2022.
“We are ramping up the implementation of our National ID system and also the digitalization in the government and with respect to the ID system, we believe that we can substantially reduce the leakage so that we can reach more people, more deserving people from the limited resources,” Balisacan said.