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)
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