Eight leaders from two Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organizations (ARBOs) in the provinces of Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur have completed their three-day Credit and Savings Policy Development (CSPD) Workshop held at the Balanghai Hotel here.
Chief Agrarian Reform Officer Antonio Miso of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Caraga (DAR-13) told the Philippine News Agency Thursday that the two ARBOs are currently engaged in big businesses and have started venturing into credit and savings programs.
The CSPD workshop culminated on Wednesday afternoon.
Miso identified that two ARBO workshop participants as those of the Progressive Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Multi-Purpose Cooperative (PARBEMCO) in Tagbina, Surigao del Sur; and the Mabini United Farmers’ Cooperative (MAUNFACO) in Placer, Surigao del Norte.
“PARBEMCO is engaged in coffee production in Surigao del Sur. For years, the cooperative serves as a consolidator and buyer of the coffee products of other cooperatives and farmer’s groups in the area,” Miso said.
The cooperative, he added, has initiated its credit and savings venture among its 463 members this year with an initial capitalization of at least PHP500,000.
Meanwhile, the MAUNFACO is engaged in the manufacture of nets made from coconut fibers and marketed to the mining companies and contractors in the province.
“Mining companies and contractors of government projects use these nets as protection in slopes to prevent landslides,” Miso said.
The cooperative, he added, has also engaged in a credit and savings program for its 190 members with a capitalization of around PHP250,000.
In a separate interview Thursday, DAR-13 Director Leomides Villareal said the workshop is vital to provide the cooperatives and their leaders with knowledge and skills in the operations of credit and savings.
“DAR-13 has considered these ARBOs as successful into their cooperative businesses. We want to equip their leaders with knowledge and skills on credit and savings,” Villareal said.
He added that among the outcomes of the three-day training was the formulation of credit and savings policies that will serve as instructions for the cooperatives.
“These policies are formulated based on the inputs provided by our resource persons who have enough knowledge in credit and savings. The merger of the expertise of the speakers and the experiences of the leaders are vital in the formulation of these policies to ensure the success of the credit and savings programs of these cooperatives,” Villarreal said.
In another interview, Vicente Potenciando Jr., a PARBEMCO board member, lauded his fellow cooperative leaders for their willingness to learn during the three-day activity.
“These policies on credit and savings were formulated and finalized due to our willingness to learn and the openness to share our experiences with our resource persons,” Potenciando said.
He also thanked the government, through the DAR, for its continuing support for beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program.
“For years, the DAR has extended its services to us farmer-beneficiaries, from providing us the land to till to capacitating through its support programs and services,” he said.
Source: Philippines News Agency
