FROM THE MARGINS
My visit to Bacolod last week brought back memories of my days with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP). I worked with the corporate-led social development foundation from 1978 to 1987, initially tasked to manage a demonstration farm in Laguna to show that a farmer family of six can live decently through integrated farming. The project met with success and was expanded nationwide. Later on, I was directed to manage PBSP’s agriculture and agri-related livelihood programs.
The Negros Occidental Development Assistance Program (NODAP), a land transfer program, was one of our most interesting projects. We implemented this amidst a background of social unrest in Negros, with the sacadas (sugar farmworkers) protesting against decades of exploitation and clamoring to own portions of the land they were tilling. Many landowners were against agrarian reform, and recognizing “a social volcano brewing,” then Diocese of Bacolod Bishop Antonio Fortich established the Social Action Center which up to this day tends to the needs of the poor in Negros. Through NODAP, we transferred some of the haciendas foreclosed by the Philippine National Bank (PNB) to sugar workers and tenants. The program continued even after I left PBSP, transformed into the Negros Productivity Development Program (NPDP) and was eventually absorbed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). It was a testament to the promise of social development and asset reform, that the poor would be able to improve their lives if you give them control of resources.
Microfinance for ARBs
Going back to Bacolod as a microfinance practitioner, I wondered how NODAP/NPDP has evolved. I have realized that its success is no longer as important as ensuring that sugar workers, tenants and other Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) have access to credit, microinsurance and other support services that they need to make the land productive.
My visit showed that microfinance institutions (MFIs) have become beacons of hope, supporting the sacadas/small farmers and giving them alternative livelihoods. Leading the pack is the Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF), founded by the late Cecille del Castillo, one of the country’s microfinance pioneers. For more than 30 years, NWTF has been providing microfinance to the poor in Negros Island and other parts of the country. NWTF is a trailblazer in Negros, starting with Project Dunganon, a microcredit loan for the poor, including ARBs, in the 1980’s.
Many MFIs have joined hands to improve the lot of the poor in Negros. These include ASA Philippines, CARD, Life Bank Foundation, PagASA, RAFI, and TSKI, among others.
Communing with clients
There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the impact of one’s work in people’s lives. Upon arriving in Bacolod, I attended a center meeting in Barangay Kapitan Ramon in Silay City. It was well-attended, with more than 80 percent of members present. Those who were not able to attend sent their amortization, and the account officer announced that they had a 100 percent repayment rate. As if this was not impressive enough, I heard from the members how much the MFI has helped them improve their lives.
Miriam, 67 years old, has been a member of her current MFI for seven years but before that, she was a member of NWTF. She has six children: four are teachers, one is an OFW, and one is a government employee. Her microfinance journey started when she availed of NWTF’s Dungganon micro-crop loan to finance the 1.65 hectare-sugarland that she received through the government’s agrarian reform program.
The income from her harvest supported her older children’s college education, thus, she is grateful to Dungganon. She joined another MFI to diversify and augment her source of income, borrowing other types of loan for her sari-sari store and to support her remaining children’s schooling. She proudly says that all of her children are successful, each of them sending her ₱1,000 per month as her “pension.” Still, she continues to till her sugarland. She says she earns about ₱50,000 a year, with the MFI helping finance her agricultural production.
Improved lives
Many MFI clients in Negros are ARBs like Miriam. They said their lives improved a lot, compared to when they were only sugar farmworkers in the haciendas. Many of them are still small farmholders, but they are also microenterpreurs. They have sari-sari stores. They are engaged in food vending, selling ready-to-wear clothes, and vegetable growing. The Covid-19 pandemic affected their businesses, but they are now recovering. It was so heartening to hear many of them say that they were able to send their children to school and had better living standards because of agrarian reform and microfinance.
I have come full circle. My Bacolod visit showed me that my involvement in agrarian reform, through PBSP and DAR, continues to make a positive difference and is strengthened by my current work in microfinance. Josh Weinstein of KIVA.Org couldn’t have said it better: “Regardless of how it is funded, agricultural microfinance makes a meaningful difference in the lives of the poorest people in the Philippines.”
(Dr. Jaime Aristotle B. Alip is a poverty eradication advocate. He is the founder of the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Mutually-Reinforcing Institutions (CARD MRI), a group of 23 organizations that provide social development services to eight million economically-disadvantaged Filipinos and insure more than 27 million nationwide.)