ARBO Opens “Panic Lista, Distributes Relief Goods
The Bagnos Multipurpose Cooperative of Banna, Ilocos Norte opens a "panic lista" in response to the needs of the people during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) period.
Bagnos MPC is a multi-awarded agrarian reform beneficiaries organization (ARBO) under the care of the provincial office of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Ilocos Norte.
According to Amelia Bautista, project manager and development officer of Bagnos, with the "panic lista", customers, especially their members, can just get rice and goods from the cooperative and pay them when the health crisis is over.
Aside from the "panic lista", Bagnos is also rationing snacks for the local frontliners and barangay officials manning the checkpoints.
They likewise distributed relief goods to the different barangays and religious groups in Banna and nearby towns, like Pinili and Nueva Era.
Bautista also said, during the ECQ, they have lowered the prices of their products and cancelled penalties on late payments of loans.
"The philosophy of Bagnos is 'helping one another', a philosophy we must strictly follow in rough times like this," Bautista stressed.
Bagnos, widely known for their rice coffee product called Banna Blend, is a multi-millionaire cooperative.
From a mere P4,457 capital in 2000, their asset ballooned to around P29 million due to their services which include rice coffee production, palay trading, consumer store, agri-input trading, credit and savings services, goat and hog raising, butchering, meat processing and farm equipment rental.Among the awards they have received are: 1st place, National Level, IT Enabled Maturity Assessment; 2018 Most Outstanding Cooperative Award from the Cooperative Development Authority; 2018 Outstanding Local Product Award from the Department of Tourism and Most Progressive ARBO (Luzon) – National Level.
(Photo credit: Bagnos MPC)
