By Manny Piñol
Whoever it was who said that rural borrowers, mostly farmers and fisherfolk, are unreliable and “high risk” should be embarrassed by the report that fisherfolk of Malimono, Surigao del Norte paid their loans ahead of the maturity date posting an incredible repayment rate of 195%.
Executive Director Jocelyn Badiola of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC), an agency under the Department of Agriculture which handles rural credit, reported that the 195% repayment rate of Malimono farmers and fishermen is the highest posted in the agency’s history.
Malimono, Surigao del Norte, reported as one of the poorest towns in the whole country, was the pilot area for the launching of the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) Program of ACPC on June 23, 2017.
An initial loan fund of P15-M was downloaded to a local conduit bank after the farmers and fisherfolk of Malimono completed a one-day workshop and were issued the DA Program Monitoring ID Cards with digital information gathered through geo-tagging and satellite mapping.
A Project Management Officer (PMO) was assigned to supervise and handle every PLEA Loan Portfolio.
Following the launching of the program in Malimono, the PLEA was introduced in 49 other provinces all over the country and the ACPC reported a repayment rate of 96%.
Earlier, I was overjoyed by the report that Cordillera vegetable farmers posted a 100% repayment rate on their P46-M credit line under the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) Program which does not require collaterals and charges a 6% interest rate per year.
In fact, on Friday, April 27, I asked ACPC to increase the Cordillera PLEA Program Loan Fund to P100-M and open a new loan program to allow farmers to borrow money to buy farm equipment and machinery.
The repayment record set by the Cordillera farmers, however, was bested and shattered by the poor farmers and fishermen of Malimono who were enjoying the first Easy Access Credit Program provided by government.
In explaining the phenomenal repayment rate of 195%, ACPC Director Badiola said the farmers and fishermen of Malimono were used to the daily amortization of their loans from informal lenders who charged a 20% interest per month.
Used to this practice of amortizing their loans after they have sold the fish they caught daily or everytime they sell their farm produce like copra, Malimono’s farmers and fisherfolk, paid back their loans in advance.
In fact, they paid over P900,000 for the matured loan amount of over P460,000 for an unbelievable repayment rate of 195%.
These encouraging developments will now justify the expansion of the Easy Access Rural Credit to all provinces all over the country.
On Friday, during the workshop of officials of the Department of Agriculture in Baguio City, I directed ACPC to organize and establish Loan Facilitation Teams in every province to help farmers and fisherfolk in their loan applications.
The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) was also directed to start a nation-wide Financial Literacy Training Program for prospective loan beneficiaries.
The outstanding loan repayment rate posted by poor farmers and fishermen is both a source of pride and a vindication for me and for the officials of the Agriculture Department who have long believed that the rural poor is trustworthy.
(First photo shows the report of ACPC Director Badiola on the repayment rate of loans in Malimono, Surigao del Norte. The other photos were taken during my first visit to Malimono early in 2017 when I promised to come back to open a loaning program for them.)
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