Distrust or money?

over 500 days after the declaration of martial law, the government line agencies cannot issue a good list mentioning the final profiles of the IDPs of Marawi.

Yes, this delay is probably caused by many factors but what makes it puzzling is that, we already are in this modern and hi-tech world where encoding, storing and sorting can now be done in just a few clicks on our computers. We can even share data from one agency to the other online.

Months ago, the OXFAM sa Pilipinas consulted me of the possibility to popularize the financial inclusion program they have for IDPs. In this program, selected few IDPs were finally profiled and put in a database where an official issuance of an identification card cum debit card is made possible with the support of SMART Telecom and PayMaya. The program allowed the IDPs to have their own cards which served as their cash cards as well. Donors can just deposit their supports through the database.

If a non-government agency waiting for funders to fuel their initiatives can think of this breakthrough for IDPs, why can’t our strong government line agencies? In fact, for government workers, we can easily be tracked via GSIS ID. We have enlisted our addresses long time ago. Barangay clusters under the ground zero or war-torn areas are identified areas already. They may have spared the government workers from the long queue done by different agencies. Then they can focus on the non-government connected individuals especially the