THE circulation of fake money will soon be a thing of the past with the top-to-bottom implementation of the Paleng-QR PH program which was launched here on February 10, this year, with the high-ranking official of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The Paleng-QR PH, a program spearheaded by the BSP and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), is a digitalized financial system which enables the public to undergo business transactions in stores, markets and even in public utility vehicles without the use of actual cash.

Ramon Florendo, head of the Market Enterprise and Promotions Office who is also the superintendent of the Naga City People’s Mall told Bicol Mail that the new financial ecosystem, also called as cashless payment system, has different advantages including the approach to prevent from being duped by scammers using counterfeit bills.

He said, Paleng-QR PH will also help business stall owners in the market to receive exact amount of payment based on the price of goods and services which they offer to buyers and clients. Incidents of inadequate changes to market vendees will be more easily restrained.

Florendo said almost 80 percent of the stall owners in the public market now adopts the cashless payment system thru online paying apps such as GCash and PayMaya thus business transactions is faster and easier. He added, this adoption is just the result of series of seminars on financial literacy for stallholders.

Mayor Nelson Legacion, in his speech during the launching ceremony of the Paleng-QR PH in Plaza Rizal thanked the Sangguniang Panlungsod for passing the Paleng-QR ordinance.

The ordinance, which was authored by councilors Joselito Del Rosario and Jose Perez, encourages the Nagueños (for e.g. sari-sari stores in the community and the local transport) adopt the digital, cashless and safer payment system thru Paleng-QR PH.

Del Rosario, under the present 14th Sangguniang Panlungsod, chaired the committee on public utility while Perez chaired the committee on investment, trade, industry, and economic enterprise.

Legacion also thanked the Bangko Sentral for choosing the city among the places in the entire Bicol region and Southern Luzon as the venue for another launching of the digital financial ecosystem.

The mayor lauded that the city, historically, is the very first place in Bicol and in Southern Luzon where Paleng-QR PH is officially brought out.

He said, thru such efforts of the local government, the city, with booming economic run, is prepared for digitalization. He added Naga will be hi-tech in terms of buying products and paying for services.

“Dae na mamomroblema sa pagsukli si manay asin si manoy. Mayo na man nin problema kun mayong darang barya,” he said.

Former Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo – Puyat, Deputy Director of Regional Operations and Advocacy Sector of the Central Bank, in her speech, also thanked the city council for passing the measure.

She emphasized that it is the local government that has a major role in making the Paleng-QR in the city truly successful.

DILG – Naga City Director Atty. Maria Hazel O. Deocareza congratulated the city government for being the local government who first ever launched the program in the entire Bicol and Southern Luzon.

Natividad Rebillon, 67, of Barangay Balatas, here, admitted that she just started to register as a user of a digital payment app although she said that indeed, digital and cashless payment system is more convenient for market goers who already availed for cashless transaction.