By Manny Piñol
Kidapawan City – In a quick trip to my home city today, I dropped by the office of the Cooperative Bank of Cotabato (CBC), one of the conduit banks of the Easy Access Credit Program of the Department of Agriculture.
The visit was prompted by complaints of the slow release of the loan funds under the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) to the applicants.
The DA through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) released to the CBC P40-M in January this year.
Five months after the release of the funds, however, the CBC has only released P10-M in loans.
During the dialogue I had with the CBC officials, I learned that in spite of the intention of DA-ACPC to facilitate the lending, there are still some difficult requirements which the applicants have to accomplish.
They said that the guidelines of the PLEA require the applicants to get a barangay clearance and an endorsement from the municipal agriculturists.
These requirements bring into play political interference in the program because the barangay chairman may refuse or delay the issuance of a barangay clearance.
Most municipal agriculturists are also appointees of the mayors.
In view of these on-the-ground findings, I will ask the ACPC Executive Council to review the guidelines and requirements to make easy access loans really accessible.
The findings I made prove once more that there is really a need for officials like me to go to the ground to appreciate the problems firsthand.
(Photos by Board Member Socrates Piñol)
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