ARB Coop in Davao Occidental is first recipient of the DAR-LBP E-ARISE Program

 

Signing of the E-ARISE Loan Agreement between LBP and SDMC officials

The Southern Davao Multi-Purpose Cooperative (SDMC), a DAR-assisted agrarian reform beneficiary cooperative in Sta. Maria, Davao Occidental became the first Agrarian Reform Beneficiary Organization (ARBO) nationwide to be granted Php1.6 million loan from the Enhanced Assistance to Restore and Install Sustainable Enterprises for Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (E-ARISE-ARBs) Program.

In the momentous Loan Signing Agreement held very recently in Davao City, SMDC Chairperson Preciano “Bebot” Natad profusely thanked both the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP)  for making SMDC the first recipient of the credit loan window and added that it is very timely. “The series of calamities they have undergone and the onslaught of the Covid19 pandemic has greatly challenged the resiliency of our farmer-members and the credit facility  which provides low interest rates is a big help in recovering our livelihood” he said. Natad further stressed  that going through this pandemic has taught them not just be complacent farmers but to become famer-entrepreneurs.

The E-ARISE-ARBs program was launched by the DAR and LBP to provide contingent credit facility to ARBOs and famer associations whose members were affected by natural calamities to restore their livelihood and farming activities.  In his message, Jose Enedicto G. Faune, LBP Vice President & Head of the Davao Lending Center, congratulated SDMC  for demonstrating liquidity due to its sound fiscal management making them the first ARBO nationwide to be eligible  of the program.

Divino C. Dalanon, Chief of the DAR XI Regional Program Beneficiaries Development Division and representing Regional Director Joseph H. Orilla, said it will continue to provide the necessary capacity-building and enterprise development intervention to ARBOs to strengthen and improve the ARBO operation with the objective of mainstreaming it to the regular lending window of the LBP.  Also,  DAR Davao Occidental OIC Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer (PARPO) II Rameses S. Lomongo enunciated “credit consciousness” among ARBs and “use the credit facility according to the purpose it was created”.

The Credit Assistance Program-National Program Management Committee (CAP-NPMC) through its Chairperson and DAR Secretary, John H. Castriciones, and pursuant to Republic Act 11469 otherwise known as the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act”, approved certain amendments to the Assistance to Restore and Install Sustainable Enterprises for Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARISE) program thus making it more responsive to the needs of the ARBOs during these trying times.  (PIO Yadz Geyrozaga)