Cooperative Organization and Practical Applications (COOP 20073)

Colarte, Erianne Khrisha Prof. Bienvenido Nito

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CONSULTATIVE FORUM: AGRI-AGRA LAW

(June 10, 2021)

Upon reading and listening to the summary of the senate bills regarding the
amendments of the Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act of 2009 introduced by our senators, I
noticed that they were seeing the agricultural sector as one of the contributing factors to
have economic growth. At the back of it, the sector faces poverty that is why we have the
agri-agra law to provide financing to our farmers, fisherfolks and agrarian beneficiaries.
But why does it need to be amended? It’s to strengthen the financing system for
agricultural, fisheries and rural development in the Philippines.

The one I like the most from the senate bill introduced by the senator is from
Senator Imee Marcos which amends the section 6 and 10 of the Agri-Agra Reform Credit
Act. As mentioned in the webinar, Section 6 of RA No. 10000 says that banks shall set
aside 25% of their loanable funds for agriculture and fisheries and 10% for of it for agrarian
reform beneficiaries. But banks were not able to meet the necessary credit quota that is
why Senator Marcos proposed to broaden the area within which the financial institution
may comply with the requirements of the act. With that, the 10% would be removed as
the credit quota for agrarian reform beneficiaries and the 25% loanable funds would now
cover the agriculture, fisheries and agrarian reform beneficiaries.

On the other hand, section 10 focuses on the penalty clause. Senator Marcos
proposed the increasing the percent of the penalties from noncompliance of banks from
0.5% to 2% because banks were just willing to pay for the penalties rather than allocating
the loanable funds to the farmers, fisherfolks and agrarian reform beneficiaries. By
increasing it, banks would surely comply because 2% of a billion or trillion is a big amount
for them. Mr. Edwin Bustillos mentioned that the PCC support these amendments of
section 6 and 10 from Senator Imee Marcos. The representatives from the agricultural
co-operatives also suggest that there should be a bank for the co-operative because
applying for loans weren’t easy and there are so many requirements to comply.

Also, the creation of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development ans
Financing Policy Council (AFRDFPC) and Agricultural and Fisheries Finance and
Capacity Building Council (AFFCC) especially on the inclusion of Cooperatives will give
the opportunity to the sector to monitor the implementation of the law and can directly
suggests adjustments on the policies and implementation. This would be a big help for
the members, farmers, and the cooperative itself.

This webinar really gives me a lot of information about the Agri-Agra Credit Reform
Act. Honestly, I don’t know much about this law and discussing it to us, as well as the
amendments proposed, I realized that it is important because our farmers and fisherfolks
are involve here. We should be open to this topic to help our farmers because they were
the ones who feed us everyday. Our voice matters and cooperativism do matters also.