FROM THE MARGINS

Last Sunday, I received a shocking text message, telling me that one of my best friends, Dr. Ramon Yedra, has passed away. From the US, I immediately called Mon’s wife, Reby, who confirmed the sad news. My heart broke when she told me that Mon – always considerate – asked her not to tell me his condition so that I will not worry about him while I was away. Mutual friends also told me that even in his last days, Mon sent them wacky jokes that made them laugh. That is precisely the Mon I know – always smiling and joking, spreading cheer everywhere.
Mon and I were classmates since high school.  We attended the then Ateneo de San Pablo, then we studied at the University of the Philippines in Los Banos (UPLB). Our careers were also intertwined: we worked together at the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC). But it is not just our personal and professional relationship that compelled me to write about Mon — a very humble man, who preferred to work quietly in the background. Mon has many contributions to the poverty eradication movement in the country, and through this article, I hope to celebrate his well-lived life. I recruited Mon to join me in PBSP in 1983.  One of his first assignments was to pilot land transfer program in Negros Occidental, to help avert a social volcano that was about to erupt there at that time. He was appointed as manager of the Negros Occidental Development Program (NODAP), a private sector-initiated land transfer program for sugar workers. Mon was very skillful in developing proposals and that is why as far as I can remember, we were able to get resources to negotiate the transfer of PNB-foreclosed agricultural lands. Mon eventually returned to the PBSP head office to become a senior program officer. He developed and monitored the numerous community development projects of PBSP-funded NGOs, cooperatives and other community-based organizations.
After a decade in PBSP, Mon joined me in ACPC, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA) that is tasked with implementing agricultural credit policies and programs. We started the Development Assistance Program for Cooperatives, to strengthen their capacities in providing micro-credit and obtaining good repayment rates.  Through this program, Mon and I assisted in the rehabilitation of several cooperative banks in the countryside.
Mon also helped me in the conceptualization and implementation of the Grameen Bank (GB) replication program. We were able to fund and train a lot of NGOs and cooperatives in Grameen-model microcredit. Many of the pioneers of our microfinance industry started as GB replicators under this ACPC program.
Under the directions of our Bosses, Dr. Bruce Tolentino and Dr. Glibert Llanto, Mon and I also worked with the Comprehensive Agricultural Loan Fund (CALF) group to promote private participation in agricultural lending.  We conducted a two-day provincial forum attended by bankers, cooperatives, NGOs and farmers across the country, to push the government policy of no-direct lending and promote guarantee programs as substitute for collateral so that farmers and cooperatives can access bank loans.
I left the ACPC in 1992, but Mon stayed as deputy executive director. He chaired the National Committee on Credit for the Poor under the Commission to Fight Poverty. Their advocacy led to the creation of the then People’s Credit and Finance Corporation (PCFC), which provided microfinance wholesale loans to MFIs. Mon also initiated a project proposal for the expansion of the Grameen Bank Replication in the country, leading to the IFAD-ADB $ 34 million rural microenterprise loan project in 1997. He also chaired the DA’s national agricultural credit program that coordinated the lending and support programs of Land Bank, Quedan Corp, and National Food Authority.
Mon was the architect of ACPC’s Cooperative Bank Assistance Program, which benefitted 45 provincial-based cooperative banks in the 1990s.  He was also instrumental in the conceptualization and implementation of DA’s Agricultural Modernization Credit and Financing Program (AMCFP), which adopts a market-oriented approach to agricultural financing. Its programs include the Agricultural Microfinance Program, a wholesale financing facility to MFIs that retail agri-microfinance loans and the DA-Landbank Sikat-Saka Program, a lending window for individual rice farmers.
From February 2020-June 2022, Mon became the OIC-Director of the DA-Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS).  He led the Kadiwa and Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) programs, linking producers to consumers and supporting the youth’s agricultural and micro-agribusiness ventures. He also developed and directed the installation of the Bantay Presyo Price monitoring system. Mon was a true servant-leader. His numerous contributions to our agriculture sector and the programs he developed for poor farmers will not be forgotten. To him I dedicate this passage from Ernest Sands’ Song of Farewell: *May the choirs of angels* *come to greet you.* *May they speed you to paradise.* *May the Lord enfold you in his mercy.* *May you find eternal life.* *(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.)*