MANILA, Philippines - Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. has relayed to the Indian embassy that the government will strictly enforce President Duterte’s policy to end the “five-six (5-6)” lending scheme practiced by Indian nationals, purportedly to protect the people from unscrupulous activity.
Yasay said he told Ramakrishnan Narayanan, chargé d’affaires of the Indian embassy, at the first vin d’honneur of the President in Malacañang Wednesday that ending this lending scheme is part of addressing domestic problems.
“I told him about the policy of the President that was to the effect that we are going to enforce very strictly against anybody engaged in these 5-6 activities, exploiting and taking advantage of our poor people engaged in business, specially local marketplace and the wet markets,” Yasay said in a press conference.
He assured Narayanan that this was not being done in reference to any particular ethnic group or nationality, although “he understood that there are many Indians who are engaged in this kind of activity, but that is purely incidental.”
“What we would like to do is to precisely curtail this activity, regulate it to a certain extent, so that it will be mutually beneficial for everybody and this is the purpose of the exercise we are going through and it is not directed, is not prejudicial to anybody,” he added.
The Indian diplomat told Yasay that the policy is a matter that he would certainly discuss with the new ambassador, who would be presenting his credentials to the President.
“But I don’t think we will have any problem along this line because they fully understand that this is something that we must address as part of the domestic problems … to make sure all our people are protected against any unscrupulous activity,” Yasay said.