DSWD warns of 4Ps scam

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Northern Mindanao warned residents of Camiguin province against con men who charge fees for supposedly enrolling beneficiaries in the government’s conditional cash transfer program.

In a statement, the DWSD regional office said it was also investigating the activities of these people, who claimed to be election coordinators of President Duterte, particularly in the island-province of Camiguin.

The DSWD said the con men would tell people wanting to become beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) that it was easy for them to be enrolled in the program but they had to pay P100 each.

Existing 4Ps beneficiaries are also being conned into shelling out money to avail themselves of nonexistent loan packages and rice allowances.

But the DSWD said it had not allowed any group to solicit membership for the 4Ps, adding that   potential beneficiaries do not have to pay for enrollment in the program.

Florylove Bentual, provincial staffer of the 4Ps program for Camiguin, said she learned that the con men had started their operation in Guinsiliban, a town in the southern part of the island, a few weeks back.

“They have conducted misinformation and have penetrated almost all of the seven villages in Guinsiliban,” Bentual said in a phone interview.

She said the group also operated in Mambajao and Catarman towns.

Bentual said the DSWD had started an information campaign in Camiguin to warn residents of the group’s operation. She said she talked with all five mayors of the island-province to alert them about the scam.  Jigger Jerusalem, Inquirer Mindanao