|
When Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye goes to the Monetary Board, the
first thing he should do is to call for the reexamination of
policies related to rural banking. As it is, the policies of the
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) prevent rural banks from helping
perk up the economy and contribute for food production.
Can you imagine that farmers have a hard time
borrowing from rural banks which are supposed to be spread all over
the archipelago? There would perhaps be no food crisis if farmers
were given access to capital, which rural banks should be providing
in the first place.
Sen. Mar Roxas of the opposition and Sen. Migs
Zubiri of the administration believe that the first line of defense
in the fight for food security should be to give farmers financial
support. Along this line, the government is trying to make it easier
for farmers to have access to capital through a bill allowing
Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) lands to be used as
collateral. That is certainly a progressive proposal.
But there is an obstacle: banks are so strict.
Even if the law on CLOA is passed, the question of whether or not
the rural banks will extend the loan remains a big question. These
banks are very cautious in lending for fear of being closed by the
BSP when these farmers default on their payments. Farmers cannot
argue that they lost their crops through unpredictable weather.
Senator Roxas believes that the Monetary Board
should be flexible in its rules on granting loans to farmer so that
the rural banks can help the farmers. At the moment these rules are
so restrictive that figures say that more than 400 rural banks in
the country have been closed by the Bangko Sentral since 1980. That
should average 15 banks a year.
Senator Zubiri, whose family is into
agriculture, said this is quite alarming. If rural banks cannot
become the partners of the farmers in the countryside, these farmers
will end up victims of loan sharks.
The rural bankers and their friends are saying
that government policies seem to be biased against them. They say
that if a giant commercial bank is in trouble, the BSP pours in
hundreds of millions of pesos to save that ailing bank, but if a
rural bank is experiencing difficulty, BSP simply shuts it down.
The House of Representatives is making its move
to help the farmers. Reps. Justin Chipeco, Florencio Noel and Mujiv
Hataman have filed a bill suspending the required capital adequacy
ratio prescribed by the BSP to all rural banks for a period of two
years.
If signed into law, rural banks will continue
serving farmers unhampered by conditionalities other than the
required standards and conditions of liquidity. When that happens,
perhaps the small banks in your poblacion will be able to help
enliven the rural economy.
Meralco should report
We were able to confirm last Saturday that the
Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) was not interested in
acquiring Meralco but in seeking reforms in management. Speaking for
the GSIS, Vice President Estrella Elamparo said the pension fund
will make this very clear in the stockholders meeting this end of
May.
Elamparo said, “They [meaning the Lopezes] do
not have to leave Meralco. Actually, we are contented with the
structure of ownership. What we are lobbying for is the change of
management.” Will this happen during the stockholders’ meeting?
Elamparo said that this would surely be part of the agenda in the
board of directors meeting.
She said Meralco has proven to be “not
transparent, inefficient, and dishonest. We are talking about the
same management that was ordered by the Supreme Court in 2003 to
refund P30 billion in overcharged rates to the consumers. This is
the same management denying the GSIS, one of the major stockholders,
access to the company’s financial statements.”
By the way, the last point is interesting. How
can the GSIS, an almost co-equal owner of Meralco, not have access
to documents? Elamparo said that GSIS wants to examine Meralco’s
contracts with other Lopez-owned firms like Ben Press Holdings Corp,
and First Gas Power which operates three independent power
producers.
___
BRIEF NOTES. Army chief Alexander Yano took over
as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines yesterday.
Gen. Hermogenes Esperon will probably be given a civilian post next
month. The President noticed Yano when he led the Southern Luzon
Command a few years back. A combat officer all throughout, Yano as
AFP chief will now do other tasks like appearing in policy
discussions in Congress and diplomatic work abroad.
jules42na@yahoo.com
|
