No driver database forced manual aid payouts where rider died

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April 20, 2026 | 10:18am

MANILA, Philippines — The government had no database of public transport drivers when it launched its cash aid program in March, forcing the Department of Social Welfare and Development to require in-person verification at payout sites — the same process in which a motorcycle taxi rider collapsed and died while queueing on Saturday.

DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao said previous fuel subsidies had only gone to vehicle operators and not to the drivers themselves.

"We really don't have a masterlist of drivers yet," Dumlao said in Filipino during an interview on Super Radyo DZBB on Monday, April 20. "This is the first time we're extending the assistance all the way to the drivers."

To screen out possible fake or ghost claimants, the DSWD required every driver to show up in person with a photocopy of their license. Dumlao said the agency could not risk sending money to accounts without verifying who was behind them.

"We didn't want to be topping up cash relief assistance into the accounts of drivers who aren't actually drivers," she said.

Once the agency has a working database, she said the plan is to shift to electronic wallets for future rounds of aid.

"This won't just help the DSWD — it will especially help our drivers so they can avoid lining up and the manual process," Dumlao said.

The DSWD confirmed the unnamed rider's death in a statement on Sunday. The rider collapsed at a special payout at Quezon Memorial Circle on Saturday after feeling dizzy. He was rushed to a hospital, where he died.

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian visited the family at the hospital the following morning and ordered the NCR field office to cover hospital bills, funeral costs and the education of the rider's child.

The payout provided P5,000 in cash aid to transport and delivery riders affected by the spike in oil prices amid the conflict in the Middle East.

It was not the first medical emergency at a payout site. On March 25, a jeepney driver with a seizure condition fainted at the same venue while lining up for cash aid. He was stabilized and did not need hospitalization.

Dumlao said the DSWD would coordinate with the Department of Health and local governments to station medical teams at remaining payout sites, given the extreme heat.

E-wallet shift

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian had earlier announced plans to possibly use mobile wallets for payouts as early as April 7, when the agency convened a virtual summit with fintech providers including G-Xchange (GCash), Maya Philippines, Cebuana Lhuillier and GoTyme Bank to explore replacing over-the-counter payouts with mobile wallets.

Gatchalian also told Congress the agency has requested quotations and expects to have partners in place for the next round of assistance.

But he cautioned that requiring e-wallets across all sectors could be too exclusionary, since many tricycle and jeepney drivers do not have digital accounts.

On Monday, the DSWD spokesperson said that once the first round of cash aid distribution is completed, the agency will have a list of drivers it can use to send aid digitally.

"After this, we'll have a foundation. It will be much easier later on," she said.

The DSWD is targeting completion of all first-round payouts — covering tricycle, jeepney, TNVS, motorcycle taxi and delivery riders inside and outside Metro Manila — by the end of April.

The program draws from a P30 billion allocation for transport workers under the national energy emergency declared by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on March 24, after the war in Iran disrupted oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz.