The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) together with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) will distribute prepaid cards today to 203 family beneficiaries of the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT).

“It has always been our commitment to ensure that our beneficiaries receive their grants in the most economic and convenient way. Through the prepaid cards, beneficiaries of the MCCT may get their grants at any Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) or they can use it to purchase groceries or medicines through the point-of-sale (POS) system),” shared DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman.

Sec. Soliman further added that the 203 prepaid cards comprise the first batch of the more than 700 prepaid cards, which will be distributed in the succeeding days. Additional 1,400 applications are also currently being processed.

“Land Bank is one with DSWD in making the delivery of government’s financial assistance easier and more accessible to the beneficiaries. It will continue to adopt more innovative channels consistent with our commitment to help promote the government’s financial inclusion program,” Land Bank President and CEO Gilda Pico said.

The initiative of DSWD and LBP to convert MCCT payments to prepaid cards is aligned with United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/E-PESO’s objective to advance financial inclusion by facilitating the rapid adoption of electronic payment use.

The MCCT is an innovation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the Conditional Cash Transfer that provides cash grants and social welfare interventions to families not covered by the Pantawid Pamilya.

These families include those who are residing on the street, Indigenous Peoples in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (IP-GIDA), and those with special needs such as families displaced by either natural or man-made disasters.

“Apart from grants, street families are also extended rental assistance. We want these families to have decent dwellings and be removed from the possible dangers that they are exposed to while on the streets,” added Sec. Soliman.

To date, there are more than 200,000 households enrolled in the MCCT with more than 2,000 street families in the National Capital Region.