INTENSIFIED SERVICES. Cecille Borromeo, president and chief executive officer of Land Bank of the Philippines, says a plan to help farmers and fisherfolk through low-interest loans has been submitted to the Department of Finance. Borromeo visited one of the state-run bank's loan beneficiaries in Davao City on Thursday (August 1, 2019). (PNA Photo by Che Palicte)
DAVAO CITY--In response to the call of President Rodrigo Duterte, Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) submitted its three-year agriculture development plan to help small farmers and fisherfolk.
This was according to LBP President and Chief Executive Officer Cecille Borromeo, who was here Thursday afternoon to visit the Biao Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative, one of the loan beneficiaries of the state-run bank.
Borromeo said they already submitted to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez on Tuesday a plan that seeks to intensify the bank's loan services for the agriculture sector.
“We heed the call of the President and we are waiting for us to be called. Maybe next week we will discuss our submitted plan,” Borromeo said.
During his 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 22, President Duterte called out the bank for having turned into a “commercial bank” when it should be prioritizing the financing of agriculture enterprises.
“You are supposed to finance agricultural enterprises and endeavors. Why aren’t you doing it? Go to the countryside and ask the people if there are cooperatives, help them to form one,” the President said.
Under the new plan, Borromeo said Land Bank aims to "intensify our lending services to them (farmers and fisherfolk) and we will allot more resources of LBP for the direct lending with a lower interest rate".
“Agriculture is a whole chain involving the producers, processors and other logistics that would bring agriculture products to the market. So, we will bring our services to them,” she added.
She also encouraged cooperatives to directly apply their loans with LBP, saying the bank has existing loan packages for facility expansion.
Borromeo assured that the delivery of the financial services would be faster, easier, friendly and cost-efficient. To do this, she said LBP will hire more account officers to cater to their clientele.
LBP has a total of 403 branches nationwide, on top of its lending centers across the country. (PNA)
