4Ps cash card pawning alarms DSWD

CEBU CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) vows to strengthen its partnership with local governments to put a stop to the pawning of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) cash card.

Jiah Sayson, DSWD-7’s 4Ps regional program coordinator, said cash card pawning has become prevalent in many localities in Cebu province, citing 59 cases in Daanbantayan and in Minglanilla.

“The problem is that 4Ps beneficiaries in Daanbantayan pawned their cards to somebody who is from Bogo City. The pawnee cannot accept cash cards from 4Ps beneficiaries in Bogo because Bogo has an ordinance that bans cash card pawning,” Sayson told the Philippine News Agency.

She said beneficiaries from Minglanilla also pawned their cards to a person who is from the village of Mambaling. Her office, she said, has been reminding beneficiaries not to pawn their cards during the monthly family development sessions, telling them that the act is considered a misbehavior which could be a ground for disqualification or delisting from the list.

Sayson said DSWD has been hopeful that with its partnership with the LGUs, they could pass an ordinance similar to that of Bogo to prevent cash card pawning of the beneficiaries. The DSWD, she added, has also engaged other government entities so that they could issue a memorandum prohibiting their employees from accepting cash cards as a pledge for debt.

“Ideally, we have been using family development sessions to explain that they need to have with them their cash cards all the time because they cannot get their cash grants without the cards. They are not that big an amount. But the cash grants are a subsidy from the national government to augment their needs so that their children can go to school, they can buy medicines, and they can get their subsidy for rice,” Sayson said.

She said DSWD also partnered with the Department of Labor and Employment, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, LGUs, and other government offices that can give livelihood projects for 4Ps beneficiaries. (John Rey Saavedra)