The Philippine Government has decided to rely on a biometric system to ensure only families that legitimately qualify for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Grant are receiving the financial aid, according to a Business World Online article.

While the Social Welfare Secretary, Corazon J. Soliman, has acknowledged that the number crunching is still being performed to figure out how the government agency can best implement the project financially and operationally, she maintained they will be implementing the project for the 281,772 beneficiaries in the region.

The idea for the project came about after speculation of mishandling of the funds where local executives and municipal coordinators were taking a cut of the per family benefit or funneling money to their own relatives who were not qualified recipients.

So far in cleansing the list of non-qualified recipients, Solimna has removed about 160,000 families and is looking to add an additional 70,000 that are unreachable due to armed conflict or flooding.

Read the full story here.

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