With the recent growth of financial products and services in the Philippines especially in the digital environment, the Commission on Human Rights urges the government to enact a legislation that would safeguard financial consumers’ rights against fraud and other unscrupulous activities.

The CHR echoes the intention of the proposed Senate Bill No. 2287 or the “Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection Act” filed by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian to ensure that there is an enabling law that affords additional protection to Filipino consumers who fall prey to exploitative entities due to lack of access to financial and digital information. Such unfortunate events demand further regulation of financial consumer protection compliance.

Similarly, the Commission supports the institutionalisation of a protection mechanism that allows consumers both to know and to assert their rights, and to have their complaints addressed and resolved in a transparent and just way. Through this proposed bill, the Commission also underscores the rights of Filipinos to disclosure and transparency of financial products and services; data privacy and protection; and timely handling of redress of complaints.

Now that we are still in the middle of a pandemic and a lot of people are experiencing the economic impact caused by Covid-19, the Commission emphasises the timely passage of this legislation to put an end to exploitative practices that further bury Filipinos into deeper financial hardships. Likewise, the CHR calls on various government agencies to amplify their educational efforts to raise the financial and digital literacies of the Filipino public to avoid being victimised by these unfair and abusive transactions. ###