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Fix the problem, not the blame!This has been the cry of Sen. Richard
Gordon in Senate investigations and public hearings. For the most
part, this cry has fallen on deaf ears. I hope that today, with the
rising cost of food, senators and congressmen will finally stop
pointing on who is to blame and instead work posthaste to fix the
problem.
For one, they could focus on the proposals of
the National Food Summit held at Clark last Friday, especially on
the call to ease the tight rural credit squeeze. President Arroyo
unveiled at the Summit a P43.7-billion blueprint for food security
called FIELDS (Fertilizer, Irrigation, Education and training of
farmers and fishermen, Loan, Dryers and other post-harvest
facilities, and Seeds of the high-yielding, hybrid varieties)
between now and 2010. Of the total amount, P15 billion comprises
credit facilities for small rural borrowers. She said that this is
aside from the P5-billion credit facility that the Land Bank of the
Philippines had alloted the other week for palay farmers. I say
“Bravo” for that.
My parents were farmers. I have a small farm in
Lupao, Nueva Ecija, and I am well aware of the problems of farmers
in securing credit. Since very few of us could qualify for bank
loans, we easily fall prey to informal lenders. The high interest
rate that could reach 100 percent in three months (200 percent if
they could not pay in full after harvest) add to the burden of high
price of inputs that farmers must carry each year. If we could
access credit at more favorable terms, then our burden would be
eased.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has long been
complaining about this credit lack. He notes that despite
contributing 20 percent to the country’s gross domestic product,
the agriculture sector gets on the average a measly 5 percent of the
cash loaned out by the banking sector.
Congress has to do some spadework to enable the
farmers to get full access to the available credit facilities. One
problem of access that lawmakers could solve is the inability of
farmers to use their lands as collaterals in securing bank loans.
Most banks consider farmers as high credit risks so they would not
extend loans without sufficient collaterals. Banks have refused to
accept reformed land as collateral because under the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Law, banks cannot foreclose reformed land even if
farmers could not pay the loan.
In the 12th Congress, Sen. Serge Osmena
sponsored on the floor a bill allowing farmers to use their lands as
loan collaterals in banks. This died a natural death. In the 13th
Congress, the Senate identified this as a priority measure but
political noise drowned out any further action. The President said
she would submit to the 14th Congress a certified bill that would
enable farmers to use their lands as collateral. If and when she
does, congressmen and senators can prove that their concern for the
masses is higher than their concern for politics by finally passing
it.
Another roadblock to the full access of farmers
to credit is the Agri-Agra Law or Presidential Decree 717.
Ironically, the law of martial rule vintage, sought to provide
farmers greater access to credit facilities by requiring banks to
set aside 10 percent of their loanable funds for beneficiaries of
agrarian reform and 15 percent for agricultural credit. Over the
years, the law has been amended to include development loans to
finance educational institutions, hospitals, socialized housing and
local government units; investment in commercial papers issued by
firms engaged in agricultural products, investment in agrarian
reform and Pag-IBIG funds; loans to high-value commercial crops
projects and investment in Quedancor as compliance with the Agri-Agra
Law. No wonder, Secretary Yap had complained that only 5 percent of
the banks’ loanable funds actually reach the farmers.
There are five bills pending in the Senate
seeking to amend the Agri-Agra Law by removing the provision which
allows banks to divert to government securities the 10-percent share
of agrarian reform beneficiaries. These are Senate Bill Number 75 by
Sen. Loren Legarda, SBN 363 by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, SBN 791 by Sen.
Bong Revilla, SBN 833 by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, and SBN 1828 by Senate
President Manuel Villar. All of them have been referred to the
Committee on Banks as primary committee and the Committee on
Agriculture as secondary committee. Thankfully, both committees are
headed by Sen. Edgardo Angara. If there is one senator who is
farmer-friendly, Angara is it.
The administration has proposed FIELDS as
solution to the problem of imbalance between supply and demand for
food. Congress must do its just share by helping fix the problem,
not the blame.
efrendanao2003@yahoo.com
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