THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is setting up a web-based portal for real-time updating and verification of the identities of persons with disabilities (PWDs) amid the proliferation of fake identification cards (IDs).
There are around 1.9 million PWDs registered with the National Council on Disability Affairs.
“The creation of a unified ID system which will employ a web-based portal will be launched the soonest,” DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said during a round table discussion with stakeholders at the agency’s Central Office in Quezon City last week.
Gatchalian asked the public to report incidents involving the sale of fake PWD cards to the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA), Persons with Disability Affairs Office (PDAO), or any law enforcement agency while the unified system is still being created.
Under the law, PWDs enjoy a 20 percent discount and an exemption from value-added tax (VAT) on certain goods and services, among others.
DSWD, quoting a report of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), said unscrupulous persons have been selling fake PWD cards, both on the streets and online, to enable some people to make fraudulent benefit claims.
BIR said the scheme has led to about P88 billion in revenue losses.
