SENATE LEADERS PLEDGE
SUPPORT FOR
AGRI EASY ACCESS FINANCING
SUPPORT FOR
AGRI EASY ACCESS FINANCING
By Manny Piñol
Two top leaders of the Philippine Senate have pledged support for the Easy Access Credit Program recently launched by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries which aims to improve productivity, address countryside poverty and end farmers and fisher folks dependence on government dole outs.
Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and the Chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Senator Loren Legarda, have pledged to support the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) Program which proposes the establishment of a P50-billion loan portfolio in the 2018 National Budget of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC).
Two weeks ago, I met with Senate President Pimentel to apprise him on the PLEA Program and its impact on greater food production, the reduction of poverty in the countryside and its importance to end farmers dependence on seeds and fertiliser subsidies which cost government billions of pesos every year.
On Tuesday night, June 20, I personally briefed Sen. Legarda on the simplified and easily accessible credit for farmers and fisher folks which I, as Secretary of Agriculture, personally conceptualised and which was fine-tuned by rural credit experts of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, an agency under the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
