DAR pushes credit line facilities

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) recently completed the implementation of 20 generous credit line facilities in the countryside that will allow farmers to borrow money and make their lands productive.

DAR Director for Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development Susana Leones, said the credit facility called “Microfinance Innovations in Cooperative program (Micoop)” offers multi-financial services such as loans for farm inputs, even for housing (repair), savings, educational and health needs among others. The credit facility was launched in partnership with the National Confederation of Cooperatives or Natcco.

Leones said she is confident the Micoop will address the problems that are besetting every farmer-beneficiary nationwide. Studies show that the lack of access to credit remains a major problem among farmers.

Many of them approach loan sharks who charge excessive interest rates.

“Thank God for Micoop, now I don’t have to go to loan sharks for cash to buy farm inputs,” said farmer Dionisio Alcover of Dacutan Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur.

The project started in 2008 and aims to transform 20 targeted cooperatives into viable intermediaries providing microfinance and bank-like financial services.

A loan fund of P10 million was released to each cooperative to set up and operate the Micoop credit facilities, while DAR released P900,000 additional fund for technical assistance to trainings and researches to hone farmers’ knowledge, skills and competencies.

The 20 Micoop bank branches can be found in the following provinces: Zamboanga del Norte, Quezon, Negros Oriental, Isabela, Bohol, Occidental Mindoro, Bicol, Iloilo, Ilocos Norte, Benguet, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Bukidnon, Romblon, Palawan, and Batangas.

Meanwhile, the Macapagal-Arroyo family has given up more land than what is required under the law in dealing with farmer-claimants in the Hacienda Bacan in Negros Occidental.

This was the assertion of Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado “Dado” Arroyo, son of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, following the issuance of Certificate of Land Ownership Award to the other 68 farmer-claimants in the land by the provincial Registry of Deeds last Oct. 26.

Arroyo underscored that his mother had already distributed around 2,000 hectares of farmlands even during her presidency.

As such, those 2,000 hectares were actually way more than the 148 hectares covered by the CLOA out of the total 157-hectare land in Guintubhan, Isabela, Negros Occidental that is registered under the Rivulet Agro-Industrial Corp.

Arroyo said out that the 148 hectares that the CLOA wants distributed is the “minimal remaining land” of Hacienda Bacan that is still undergoing litigation.

“My father’s family is very much aware of my mother’s aspiration of empowering farmers/land tillers. My mother has already ordered 2,000 hectares distributed, this is just for 148 hectares,” the young Arroyo said.

He noted that this was the same advocacy of his grandfather, former President Diosdado Macapagal, who “abolished land tenancy by law and actively pursued land reform.”

Arroyo emphasized that his grandfather was the “only Philippine President who came from peasant stock.”