THE Makati City government aims to distribute the all-in-one Makatizen Card to around 300,000 residents, students and city government employees by the end of the year.
“To date, the registration of city government employees and eligible Makati-based national government workers is well under way. We have also started to roll out the Makatizen Universal Card System to the city’s 33 barangays with the goal of registering around 300,000 residents by the end of the year,” Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay said before other local chief executives and members of the business sector at the fifth Regional Competitiveness Summit and Awards Ceremony held at the Philippine International Convention Center.
The mayor said the cutting-edge program is now being rolled out to the city’s 33 barangays.
The mayor presented the features, advantages, and benefits of Makati’s unified identification card to local chief executives and key officials from 1,487 cities and municipalities from all over the country.
“The Makatizen Card project represents this year’s theme: ‘Technology and Innovation is Key to Competitiveness’. It is not only a financially inclusive eco system that creates a digitally connected citizenry. It also takes the government—including all its services and processes—online,” Binay said.
The Makatizen Card is a public-private partnership (PPP) between Makati and G-xchange and iBayad Online Ventures Inc. It is a comprehensive universal-card system that offers residents, students and city-government employees expanded and improved access to government services.
The card allows recipients to receive cash allowances, stipends and other cash benefits, including those provided under the Makati Health Program (Yellow Card), Senior Citizens program (Blu Card), persons with disabilities card and Solo Parent Card among others.
“Aside from making day-to-day tasks much more convenient for Makatizens, the project also allows greater transparency in the implementation of the city’s various social-welfare programs, thereby ensuring that the right people receive the right benefits in the most efficient way,” the mayor said.
The Makatizen Card can also be used to pay fees and taxes, personal remittances and other financial transactions. More important, the magnetic strip contains vital information about bearer: his address, gender, blood type, as well as emergency contact numbers. The card is also equipped with a Near-Field Communication feature which will allow city offices equipped with iBayad machine readers to verify the identity of residents and employees with just a single tap.
Binay presented her actual Makatizen Card to the audience and said she had used it to pay for her water bill in the wee hours of the morning, without having to wait in line or wait for regular business hours. She also noted that using the Makatizen Card as a payment option for city-government employees will reduce the mountain of paperwork that accompanies doing the payroll.
She also mentioned other notable digital PPP programs. The Fiber Optic Loop project, for one, will establish a public Wi-fi system providing free fiber-optic Wi-fi connection to Makati residents. The project is targeted for completion in 27 barangays, excluding the six villages, by the end of December this year.