BARMM, GCash partner for online public cash aid

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Bangsamoro social services ministry and GCash shall now jointly facilitate the online distribution of cash assistance for beneficiaries of the autonomous regional government’s humanitarian programs. Representatives from the Ministry of Social Services and Development-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the private entity GCash, operating a nationwide online finance and money remittance application widely used now by Filipinos in the country and abroad, together launched the Financial Assistance System Transformation (FAST) program in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte on Thursday, July 30. The FAST program is meant to simplify and hasten the distribution, via GCash, of MSSD-BARMM’s fund assistance to beneficiaries in the autonomous region’s five provinces, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and its three cities, Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.. Thursday’s inaugural rite for the FAST program was jointly facilitated by the director-general of the MSSD-BARMM, the lawyer Mohammad Muktadir Ahmad Estrella, Mohd Asnin Pendatun, who is cabinet secretary of the Bangsamoro regional government, and Paul Vincent Albano and Cleo Celeste Santos, general manager for business and vice president and public sector head of GCash, respectively. Two other MSSD-BARMM officials, Deputy Minister Ainee Tan Lim and Moctar Abubakar, acting chief of the ministry's planning and development division, were also present in the launching of the FAST program, witnessed by representatives of various sectors and reporters from Cotabato City, where the BARMM capitol is located, and from Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur provinces. MSSD-BARMM and GCash officials separately explained to reporters, after the event, that beneficiaries of the ministry’s fund support projects shall be provided with customized cards that they can use both as identification cards and as a cashless payment medium, like the standard automated teller machine (ATM) cards. The customized cards can be used in withdrawing funds from ATMs of any bank close to the location of holders, Albano and Santos of the Gcash and MSSD-BARMM's Lim and Abubakar separately explained to reporters during a dialogue at the Maguindanao del Norte provincial capitol in Barangay Simuay in Sultan Kudarat. “This will cut lengthy bureaucratic procedures in facilitating the release of funds for beneficiaries,” Estrella then said. Santos said the FAST program of the MSSD-BARMM and GCash is the first ever in Mindanao. Bangsamoro Social Welfare Minister Raissa Jajurie said the FAST program was jointly crafted by planners and researchers in their ministry and counterparts in GCash. Jajurie, also a member of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, had told reporters that the transfer of funds from their ministry to beneficiaries in the autonomous region shall be made easier and faster by the special program, pioneered in Mindanao by the Bangsamoro regional government and GCash.