Parañaque Representative-elect Brian Raymund Yamsuan is partnering with the private sector to develop a “culture of financial literacy” in the city, starting with beneficiaries of his livelihood and job programs in the second district.
Yamsuan, the incoming congressman of the city’s second district, said he will make financial literacy a key component of the training received by livelihood program beneficiaries to help them make informed and responsible decisions about the funds they have received from the government.
These include recipients of Yamsuan’s “Bigay Negosyo” and “Dagdag Puhunan Para sa Kabuhayan” programs, which he has been implementing in Parañaque’s 2nd District in coordination with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), respectively.
“Ang layunin natin ay maging ‘wais’ ang bawat Parañaqueño sa paghawak ng kanilang pera, simula dito sa Distrito Dos. Many people think that financial literacy is a daunting, complex idea. We will partner with private sector groups to simplify and explain financial concepts so that they would be easy to understand and put into practice,” Yamsuan said.
(Our goal is to make every Parañaqueno handle their money wisely, starting here in District Two.)
“Kasama na sa financial literacy program ang pagtuturo sa kanila kung paano mag-budget, mag-ipon, mag-invest, humiram ng karagdagang pondo at magkaroon ng kaalaman tungkol sa mga financial products and services na maari nilang gamitin para mapalago ang kanilang maliit na negosyo. Developing a culture of financial literacy should be our first step towards financial inclusion where every Filipino, regardless of his economic status, has easy and affordable access to financial services,” he added.
(Included in the financial literacy program is teaching them how to budget, save, invest and borrow additional funds and other knowledge about financial products and services that they can use to expand their small businesses.)
Yamsuan said he is also planning to include “ayuda” beneficiaries in his financial literacy program.
“The government allocates billions of pesos each year under the national budget to fund livelihood programs and provide ‘ayuda’ to our low-income countrymen. Financial literacy will not only help recipients of these support programs make rational decisions about the money they receive, but will also mean less ‘ayuda’ and other forms of social protection going to waste due to poor financial decisions,” Yamsuan said.
Yamsuan said being financially literate would also protect Filipinos from being victims of scams, especially those that have proliferated online.
The Parañaque lawmaker said he will re-file in the incoming 20th Congress his bill which aims to mandate the DOLE to institutionalize financial literacy programs for workers.
A 2023 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed the Philippines scoring 58 out of 100 in overall financial literacy, which falls below the OECD’s minimum target of 70. A global study by S&P Global Ratings ranked the Philippines in the bottom 30 out of 144 countries surveyed on financial literacy.
