Digital payments nears 50% share of all transactions

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) remains confident that it will achieve its goal of shifting at least 50 percent of all payment transactions in digital form by end-2023.

BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto E. Tangonan said preliminary numbers prove that in 2022, digital or e-payment transactions have exceeded the 2021 migration, which was 30.3 percent of all payments in digital form. Tangonan said “indications” show that “it will surpass” last year’s 30.3 percent.

“We’re doing the measurement right now, (it’s) ongoing for 2022,” he said. The numbers however are still being tallied.

“We will come up with it sometime in July and then we will report it,” he added.

Last week, BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla said the share of digital transactions in total payments “has been growing steadily” with both InstaPay and PESONet. Also, more people are using the QR Ph code for payments while all payment service providers still using non-QR PH codes will shift to QR Ph by July this year. The 30.3 percent e-payments as of end-2021 in terms of volume is higher compared to 20.1 percent in 2020. The lockdowns and mobility restrictions were the trigger to convince millions of Filipinos to switch to digital payments or online

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In 2021 US President Joe Biden convened the first ever “Summit for Democracies” hoping to demonstrate the US model of democracy by bringing together countries from around the world he perceived as modeling themselves after the US prototype that serves as the “Beacon on the Hill.” breaks it down to just two words, “Demo” meaning people and “kratia” meaning “power, rule” and nothing more, which means the interpreter and implementer has all the freedom to innovate to achieve that principle of “people power.

I have written about this Summit for Democracies every year since, pointing out the realities on the ground that Western survey themselves belie the claims of the US of its shining democracy and enthusiasm of the American people for that democracy.

On the question of their enjoyment of free and fair elections, and the right to free speech, almost a third of Americans, 32 percent and 31 percent, respectively, said they did not, while just 17 percent and 5 percent, respectively in China responded to the same questions negatively.

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A Great Son

Think a minute . . . This is a true story about a boy who dreamed of sailing around the world living a life of adventure on the sea. The day finally came at age 15 when he was old enough to follow his dream and join the Navy as a midshipman on a real war ship. Of course, his big challenge now was to convince his mother to let him go. But his dear mother had lost her husband only 5 years earlier and was left to raise more than a dozen children all by herself. So for her to give up her youngest son was asking almost too much. Yet she told him if that was what he really wanted, she would give her approval to let him go.

The day finally came to say goodbye. Her boy was standing in front of her in a dashing Navy uniform, ready to sail away. Suddenly his mother became overwhelmed with the pain of letting go of her youngest son. She began to cry uncontrollably and begged him to stay home to help her and the rest of the family. Her 15-year-old son was quiet for a long time before finally speaking. He wanted with all his heart to become a Navy officer—but not if it was going to break his mother’s heart. He was deeply sad and disappointed, yet he returned home to help his mother take care of the rest of the family.

But that’s not the end of the story. For this honorable young man who almost became a midshipman, later became the

The realities are exposed in two surveys I have been following the past two years. The first is the Alliance for Democracies survey of democracies engaging the Latana consultancy to do polling of 53,000 respondents in 52 countries from West to East, and the Edelman Trust Barometer trust poll.

From the 2022 Alliance for Democracies survey, we learn that 83 percent of China’s citizens say their country is democratic, while only 49 percent of Americans say they have democracy in their country; 91 percent of Chinese say democracy is important to them and only 76 percent of Americans says democracy is important.

Still from the same survey, 63 percent of Americans say their government serves mainly the interests of a minority while only 7 percent of Chinese say their government serve the interests of the minority. So, these are some realities that Americans and the rest of the world should realize in judging “democracies.”

Think A Minute

JHAN TIAFAU HURST captain of a country. This devoted son who sacrificed everything became known as the Father of the Nation: George Washington, the first President of the United States. The Son of God Himself sacrificed everything, including His perfectly innocent life, because of His great love for us. Then three days later He came back to life to rule over everything He had created. Yet He still gives us human beings the freedom and choice whether or not we will accept His authority and follow His leadership over our life. The great news is that we can trust Him, because He has already proven that He rules and leads us with His unfailing love that sacrificed Himself for us. Won’t you trust and ask Him to take full charge of your heart and life for the rest of your life? You have nothing to lose and absolutely everything to gain. Just think a minute . . .

On equal rights, only 5 percent of Chinese said not everyone enjoys equal rights while 42 percent of Americans said not everyone enjoyed equal rights. On trust in government 91 percent of Chinese say they trust their government while only 39 percent of Americans trust their government, this is what the Edelman Trust Barometer found out.

Another research firm, Pew Research, reported in 2022 that American trust in government went down to “historic lows” when its survey showed only a fifth of Americans trust their government. These realities reflect the true picture and speaks all that needs to be said about which is genuinely democratic.

The 2023 Edelman Barometer which I have just opened presents a chart on the matter of a country’s sense of polarization or divisiveness. The less polarized meaning “seeing few deep divisions” versus “severely polarized” meaning seeing irremediable deep divisions in society.

The Edelman Barometer classifies China amongst the last two of the least polarized societies and the US in third of the top three severely polarized societies coming after Argentina and the narco-state Colombia. Democracy comes from the Greeks and its etymology

Like all things human the political ideal and system of “democracy” should be understood as ever evolving human institutions that develop along with its progressing economic, technological, cultural experiences. This is what has happened to mutating “democracy” -- the forward push of people power through history.

Through the stages of human history his political institution has evolved, from the primitive family to clan and tribal political system, then the feudal and aristocratic structure and onto to the varying forms of democracies emanating from the capitalist system and the variations of social democracies.

The technologies of today are also the reasons for the rise of the scientific socialist people’s democratic systems that are at this stage outcompeting the capitalist “liberal” electoral democratic system due to the capacities of centralized socialist production system to outproduce the capitalist systems.

While the “liberal” electoral democratic systems rely on competition within and without, intra-capitalist competition with similarly capitalist countries, even going into the socialist countries to outcompete their fellow capitalist countries to exploit domestic and international markets.

The “liberal” political aspect with safeguards to the extreme the individual interest is actually a cover for the Big Boss capitalists’ interest and ensures the divisiveness of the political system -- the height of which we have seen in the US with the 2010 passage of the “Citizens United” laws that opened the floodgates of capitalist financing of partisan politics now destroying America.

Everything in America is poisoned by this corrupted, finance-capitalist controlled and schismatic American political democracy (some say “demon-crazy”). Who would want to buy this “export of democracy” of the US now --- unfortunately that very small, divided state in between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean has bought it and buying more of it. Soon it will be vomited.

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in the foregoing article are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Philippine News Agency (PNA) or any other office under the Presidential Communications Office.