MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives’ Committee on Social Services has approved measures seeking to establish the Pambansang Agapay sa Pamilya at Maliliit na Negosyo Program, which would provide qualified minimum wage households with up to P12,000 a year while directing their spending to accredited local micro, small, and medium enterprises.
Also known as Pamana, House Bill 10648 allows beneficiaries to receive P1,000 monthly through a PhilSys-linked digital wallet.
Eligible households will be those headed by minimum wage earners registered with the Philippine Identification System and not receiving assistance under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) or its successor.
It will also cover qualified public-sector, self-employed and informal-sector workers earning at or below the applicable minimum wage.
“We should be clear that Pamana is not simply ayuda. The intention is not just to transfer money to a household and end the intervention there,” Tingog party-list Rep. Jude Acidre, one of the principal authors of HB 10648, said.
As stated in the bill, the subsidy will have to be spent through accredited local MSMEs, including sari-sari stores, market vendors, eateries, and pharmacies.
Acidre said the arrangement would allow government support for families to generate additional income for small businesses.
“What a family spends becomes income for a small business. That business, in turn, uses that income to replenish inventory, buy from suppliers, pay workers, and continue operating,” the lawmaker said.
As part of the safeguards, beneficiaries will be limited to spending P200 per day, with unused funds carried over to succeeding days subject to the same limit.
The subsidy could not be converted to cash, transferred to another account, or used for online gambling, alcohol, tobacco and other excluded goods and services.
The proposals also call for the creation of a Pamana Trust Fund, to be maintained by the Bureau of the Treasury and administered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Funding would come from identified revenue sources, including 50 percent of incremental value-added tax revenues from digital services and 50 percent of the national government share from royalties, windfall profits taxes and other revenues under the mining fiscal regime.