Return to Malimono!

DA REVISITS FIRST RECIPIENT

OF EASY ACCESS FINANCING

By Manny Piñol

Surigao City – This morning I will make my third visit to the coastal town of Malimono, Surigao del Norte which faces the rich fishing grounds of the Bohol Sea but I am more excited today that in my first two visits, the last of which was on June 23, 2017.

It took me 10 hours of travel overland from Kidapawan City in North Cotabato to Surigao City, arriving here 10 p.m. Wednesday but my eagerness to see Malimono again roused me from sleep at 3 a.m. today.

Malimono is, or maybe was, one of the country’s poorest towns where most of the residents are marginal farmers or poor fishermen.

The town is heavily influenced by the New People’s Army which was why when I first visited it early in 2017, I was warned not to proceed to the area unescorted.

In all of these warnings, however, I have always responded that as Agriculture Secretary, I have no enemies because I have no interests to protect and my only desire is to help.

The Malimono that I first saw was a quaint seaside town and poverty was very visible.

In the impromptu consultations which my brother, Bong Piñol, arranged with the help of the wife of the mayor and her sister, children of an old departed friend, I immediately discovered what it was that the people needed.

It was just a break from the vicious cycle of poverty where because of poverty, they have to borrow money from local lenders and traders and everytime they dock their wooden boats after a night at sea, the same lenders will buy their catch at dictated prices.

There was no fishing port to speak of, no ice-making facility, no post harvest facilities and no access to the market.

It was there where I remembered that as a young boy growing up in the farm, this was the same problem which confronted my grandfather, my father and all other farmers.

They had to borrow money from local traders who charged 100% interest after harvest because it was impossible for the simple farmer in rubber slippers to go to the bank and borrow.

When I went back to Malimono, on June 23, 2017, the 119th anniversary of the Department of Agriculture, the Production Loan Easy Access Program was launched.

It is, as the name suggests, an Easy Access Credit where farmers or fishermen only have to organize themselves, undergo a one-day orientation on Financial Literacy and livelihood project management after which he could borrow as much as P50,000 without any collateral at 6% interest per year.

On that date, the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) released P15-M through a local conduit bank which was accessed the farmers and fishermen in the town.

The initial reports I received from Malimono were very encouraging because the borrowers paid back ahead of their loan’s maturity, perhaps it was because they were used to paying back the local lenders right after they sell their daily catch.

From Malimono, the PLEA Program spread all over the country and it now covers 46 Provinces with a repayment rate of 97%.

Today, I would like to validate the effectiveness of this program in improving poor farmers’ and fishermen’s lives.

In my dialogue with farmers and fishermen, I have always emphasized that government takes the risk of lending money, even when experts are saying they will not pay back, because President Rody Duterte would like to see poverty in the countryside defeated by meaningful government interventions.

I have always said that government programs would be meaningless if farmers and fishermen’s lives do not undergo a positive change.

Did the lives of the fishermen and farmers of Malimono improve because of the PLEA Program?

Were they able to send their children to school?

Were they able to buy the simple luxuries in life like new clothes and perhaps a small television set?

Do they feel now that government really cares for them?

Does the Easy Access Credit Program of the DA contribute to greater food production and poverty alleviation?

The answers will be known today when I come back to the city from the scenic town of Malimono.

(The first 10 photos were taken during my first visit to Malimono while the succeeding photos were taken on June 23, 2017 when DA delivered the interventions and released the P15-M loan fund.)