Executive session called on city’s new Smart card

The Cebu City Council has set an executive session inviting representatives of the City Hall’s executive department to discuss with members the data capture, production, personalization and printing of the beneficiary identification of the city’s unified smart card.

Members wanted to be informed on the specifications of the program before they would authorize Mayor Michael Rama to sign the Memorandum of Agreement with AllCard Plastics Philippines, Inc.

Rama’s administration wants to improve the city’s delivery of basic services through the institutionalization of a new health ID system.

AllCard Plastics Philippines, Inc. general manager Roy Ebora, City Administrator Lucelle Mercado, and Department of Social Welfare and Services Chief Ester Concha were among those invited to the June 17 session.

With a bid of P4.36 million, Pasig City-based AllCard Plastics Philippines, Inc. won the bidding for the production and distribution of the 78,000 pieces of Cebu City Government Unified Beneficiary Smart Card ID cards.

The new identification system aims to improve the delivery of basic services in the city since qualified beneficiaries would no longer bring a number of requirements to avail of the of the city’s health and other basic services.

The city’s programs and services include burial assistance, cash aid for senior citizens and persons with disabilities, hospitalization and medicine, among others. It is planned that the ID can also be used as an automated teller machine card of senior citizens and other beneficiaries.

City Councilor Lea Japson, City Council-committee on social services chairperson, endorsed to the body the resolution authorizing Rama to sign the MOA.

The City Legal Office finds the provisions cited in the MOA “in accordance with law and are not contrary to morals, good customs, public order or public policy.”

The ID would already contain the basic information of the cardholder, like the name, age, voter information, address and other pertinent information.

City Hall employees and beneficiaries can also avail of the new ID. Beneficiaries and heads of families with an income not exceeding P5,000 a month can be issued the ID and their family members are automatically included and can avail of various benefits.

The city government has intended P30 million for the institutionalization of the ID system.

Cebu City Business Center Executive Director Abby Canturias earlier said that the city government is prioritizing the families who have members that are senior citizens and persons with disabilities for the first 10,000 cardholders.

CCBC, the research arm of the city government, helped the DSWS come up with the design of the new identification system.