March 29, 2024

Preparations are on for the launching of the “Paleng-QR Ph” cashless payment program set to be piloted in the city.

An organizational meeting was held last June 21 among representatives of program proponents Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Department of the Interior and Local Government, the city government’s executive and legislative departments, financial institutions, service providers and other stakeholders to set ground preparations for the inaugural run of the program.

BSP Director Joyce Suficiencia issued guidance to the city council represented by market, trade, commerce and agriculture committee chair Councilor Isabelo Cosalan, Jr. on the passage of a legislative measure to pave the way for the program in the city.

She said Baguio will serve as the model implementer of the program for other local government units to follow.

The meeting also allowed stakeholders to discuss the concerns raised by market vendors during the initial meeting held July 13.

The BSP officials led by Deputy Governor Berna Romulo-Puyat introduced the program to Mayor Benjamin Magalong who expressed reception to the scheme having been aligned with the city’s own digitalization thrust.

Aimed at promoting cashless system as alternative method of transaction in public markets and local transportation, the program aims to create a digital payments ecosystem making use of existing financial service providers like G-Cash, Paymaya, banks and others to facilitate cashless transactions between merchants and consumers.  

Magalong said the program will help improve the city’s collection system and eliminate collection malpractices at the city market while also benefiting the vendors in terms of speeding up payment and ensuring integrity in transactions.

He earlier assured the program will not be implemented without preparing the merchants to the new system and without addressing concerns on the prohibitive transaction fees that may be levied by the service providers. Among the activities during the launching is the onboarding of interested merchants by the different financial service providers. – Aileen P. Refuerzo