DOF, DA chiefs to address rural bankers

DAGUPAN CITY – The Philippine economy and new trends in countryside banking will be discussed at the Confederation of Northern Luzon Rural Banks management conference at the Leisure Coast Resort in Barangay Bonuan Binloc here on April 9 to 21.

Confederation president Salvador A. Calaguio, vice president for administration and finance of the Sta. Barbara Rural Bank said Finance Secretary Alberto Romulo and Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor are principal guests on opening day.

Calaguio, conference chairman, said the event is expected to report on the projects of the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) headed by its president Ives Nisce such as micro-finance, an essay writing contest on rural banks in countryside growth and others. Julieta Guinto of Region II is conference co-chairperson.

Mayor Alipio Fernandez will welcome the 180 delegates from Regions I, II and the Cordilleras.

With its theme "Rural Bank: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century," the three-day activity will take up RBAP’s essay writing contest for college students which will give P50,000, P30,000 and P10,000 to the top three winners.

Deadline for submission of entries in the province is May 15, 2001 c/o any rural bank or directly to Lourdes Quijano of the Rural Bank of Pozorrubio. Number one winners in the provinces shall be submitted on or before June 30, 2001 c/o Johnny Novera, essay contest chairman.

Speakers will come from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), Philippine Credit Finance Corp. (PCFC), Mindanao Assistance for Banks (MABS), Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) and the RBAP including LBP senior vice president Antonio Hernandez, PBSP Group director Patricia Calilong and PCFC OIC Eustacio Orobia Jr.; lawyer John Owens, chief of party, MABS; and Philippine Rural Banking Corp. president Roberto P. Alingog.

PDIC president Norberto Nazareno, BSP director of Rural Banks Wilfredo Domo-ong and BSP director Andres Rustia, RBAP president Ives Nisce and fellow officers Victor dela Dingco, Zenaida Teves, Alberto Concha, Teresa Carlos, Alex Buenaventura and Jerry Coloma Jr. will lead dialogues with government regulators and the RBAP and RBRDFI.

RBAP chief operating officer Pablo Ronquillo and RBRFDI chairman Carlito Fuentesfina will give updates on RBAP and RBRDFI.

The conference will have a tour of the Pilgrimage of Asia and the Shrine of the Holy Virgin in that religious town of Manaoag and the Hundred Islands in Alaminos Çity on closing day.