Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo is using the House Committee on Public Accounts to launch a full inquiry into the Land Bank of the Philippines' (LBP) lending practices.

This, as Quimbo expressed concerns over the supposed lack of transparency regarding loans contracted by local government units (LGUs) from LBP in her privilege speech Monday night, Dec. 9.

She used Marikina City’s ₱3.6-billion debt as a case study. The city’s outstanding debt is larger than its annual budget of ₱3.09 billion, yet the details surrounding these loans, including their purposes and terms, remain unclear to the public.

Despite repeated requests from Quimbo for transparency, LBP has refused to disclose critical information, invoking confidentiality clauses that she argues do not apply to public loans involving taxpayer funds. 

The senior vice chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations said this lack of transparency undermines public trust and accountability, particularly when the loans are directly funded by taxpayers.

“It is the right of the people to know how their money is being spent. The lack of transparency in Land Bank’s dealings with LGUs is a violation of the people’s right to information. We need a full inquiry into how these loans are contracted and utilized," she said.

The public accounts panel is chaired by Abang Lingkod Party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Caraps Paduano. 

Quimbo also called out LBP for allegedly failing to adhere to its original mandate of supporting marginalized sectors such as farmers, fishers, and small enterprises. She highlighted how the government-owned financial institution has increasingly focused its resources on large corporations.

In her privilege speech, Quimbo pointed out that LBP's current lending portfolio was heavily skewed towards large corporations, with 61.38 percent of its outstanding loans—₱694.55 billion—allocated to big businesses. 

In stark contrast, only 0.09 percent of its loans, or ₱1.07 billion, go to individual farmers, with even smaller amounts going to cooperatives and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). 

Quimbo, an aspiring mayor, says this shift away from the state-run bank's original rural development mission raises serious concerns about its current priorities.

She called for immediate action to address these issues and for LBP to return to its core mandate of supporting rural development and the marginalized sectors it was established to serve.