The City of Mandaue recently joined other cities and provinces throughout the country in supporting the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s payment digitalization campaign after launching the Paleng-QR Ph Plus program at the Mandaue City Public Market.
The program launch, which aims to promote digital payments in markets, public transport, and other key establishments, was led by Mandaue City Mayor Jonas C. Cortes. Joining the city mayor during the event were Atty. Charina B. De Vera-Yap, BSP Officer-in-Charge (OIC) for Financial Inclusion and Consumer Empowerment Sub-Sector, and Leocadio T. Trovela, Regional Director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Photo shows (from left:) DILG Regional Director Leocadio T. Trovela, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas C. Cortes, BSP Officer-in-Charge for Financial Inclusion and Consumer Empowerment Sub-Sector Atty. Charina B. De Vera-Yap, and market vendor Cristina Mosqueda, at the Mandaue City Public Market.
In a recorded video message, BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona, Jr. welcomed Mandaue City’s participation in the program, which he said has been designed to provide a fast, convenient, and safer way of making payments.
“[Paleng-QR Ph Plus] aims to strengthen the financial resilience of Filipinos and help them maximize economic opportunities through inclusion in the formal financial system,” the BSP governor said.
Mayor Cortes affirmed this comment, saying, “Ang Paleng-QR Ph [Plus] nagpakita sa atong paglambo atong paningkamot nga mas paspas ug luwas nga pagserbisyo sa mga Mandauehanon. Pinaagi niini, atong mapasiguro nga ang atong merkado padayong mahimong sentro sa atong lokal nga ekonomiya. (The Paleng-QR Ph Plus shows our progress and our aspirations for a more efficient and safer services for all Mandauehanon. Through this initiative, we can assure you that our public market will become the center of our local economy.)”
Meanwhile, OIC De Vera-Yap commended the city’s efforts to pass an ordinance adopting the Paleng-QR Ph Plus program, thus enabling the people of Mandaue to benefit from cashless transactions.
“With the implementation of Paleng-QR Ph Plus in your city, Mandauehanons can now use their transaction account for purchases and acceptance of payments as a buyer or a vendor, which helps build their digital financial footprint. This then leads to access to other welfare-enhancing financial services, such as formal credit, so pwede nang mangutang via digital way, and have access to savings, insurance, and of course, pwede na rin mag-invest,” she said.
DILG Regional Director Trovela, for his part, said, “We aim to enable more Filipinos to thrive in this digital era. The DILG fully supports the Paleng-QR Ph Plus because we believe in this policy research-backed project, which emphasizes that in order for Filipinos to really adopt cashless transactions, the palengke is the right place to start.”
The City Government of Mandaue, with assistance from participating financial service providers, also organized an account opening drive and printed the respective QR Ph codes of the participants.
During the launch, the BSP also conducted its Piso Caravan to help Mandauehanons replace their unfit and mutilated currency with fit banknotes and coins or e-money. The Piso Caravan supports the central bank’s Clean Note and Coin Policy, as well as its Coin Recirculation Program.
The Paleng-QR Ph Plus is one of the priority programs under the BSP’s National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) 2022-2028, the guiding framework for all stakeholders working together to accelerate financial inclusion in the country.
The strategy aids in the alignment, prioritization, and delivery of high-impact initiatives across the government and private sectors. It also serves as a communication tool for the wider public, sustaining broad-based support for financial inclusion.
Relatedly, the nationwide implementation of Paleng-QR Ph Plus is in line with the BSP’s Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023, which aims to transform half of the volume of retail payments in the country into digital form and onboard 70 percent of Filipino adults to the formal financial system this year.
For more details on the Paleng-QR Ph Plus program, log on to https://bit.ly/PQPP_FAQs_E.
For more details on the Piso Caravan and other public information campaigns in the Visayas, you may contact the BSP Visayas Regional Office at (032) 254-9368 or AOville@bsp.gov.ph.
