The Department of Education (DepEd) warned teachers from using ATM payroll cards as collateral for loans or engaging in the ATM “sangla” scheme. DepEd Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla reminded teachers that they could not use their ATM payroll card as collateral for loans. Sevilla said it as a “dangerous scheme” since all the salary, benefits, and bonuses of teachers are directly deposited to their ATM payrolls. The warning came after a teacher from Gapan, Nueva Ecija admitted that she pawned her ATM payroll to a lending institution. She, later on, complained that despite the 60-days grace period allowed under the Bayanihan Act 2, the lending company continued to make deductions for her loan payment. On April 2020, Education Secretary Leonor Briones issued to all undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, bureau and service directors, regional directors, schools division superintendents, public elementary and secondary school heads, and all others concerned, the Office Memorandum (OM-OSEC-2020-006). Under the memorandum, she warned against the practice of surrendering ATM cards as collateral for loans as the DepEd Terms and Conditions prohibit this for Accreditation under the Automatic Payroll Deduction System. “ATM Card pawning has been noted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as a dangerous scheme, for it exposes borrowers to identity theft and unauthorized use of personal data possibly for unlawful activities,” Briones said. “Also, BSP finds that this practice unduly promotes overindebtedness,” she added. Meanwhile, DepEd has already coordinated with their partner government funding institutions (GFIs) and private lending institutions (PLIs) accredited under their Automatic Payroll Deduction System further to extend the deadline of payments to two more months. That extension is already on top of the grace period under the Bayanihan Act 2.  

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