Micro-financing program: Cayetano lends money to Cebu jeepney drivers

CEBU, Philippines - Senator Alan Peter Cayetano came to Cebu yesterday and gave P150,000 to Cebu-based transport group Nagkahiusang Draybers Alang sa Reporma as seed capital for a micro-financing program under  his Kontra 5–6 project.

“We hope that with this fund, jeepney drivers and operators in the city will be able to borrow money and pay very minimal interest for their benefit and their association. Hindi na sila kailangang humiram sa 5/6,” Cayetano said.

In response, Jose “Jojo” Gloria Jr., the association’s president, thanked the senator and assured him that members will have easy access to his PTK: Presyo, Trabaho, Kita fund.

Prior to the assistance, Gloria said most of their members had difficulty in sustaining their livelihood because of the lack of access to capital provided to them by government. Hence, they often resorted to borrowing money from loan sharks who charge usurious interests.

The group’s initiative, Cayetano says, inspires him to help more farmers, fishers, transport groups and small entrepreneurs.

He said he is optimistic that the PTK project would also result in real change for the association’s members, like what happened to other groups around the country.

“I want to create real change in families’ lives by making them benefit from our growing economy,” Cayetano said in a statement.

To date, programs under the PTK agenda already extended assistance to a total of 156 cooperatives and organizations in the country, including 19 associations in Cebu.

Cayetano’s initiative fulfills a promise he made during his 2013 campaign, when various sectors he consulted with in his listening tours identified high prices of goods, lack of jobs, andlow income as their main problems.

“Given the success achieved by the PTK beneficiaries, I am calling on the government to institutionalize this kind of micro-financing scheme throughout the country and create real change for the agriculture, transport and micro-enterprise sectors,” the senator said.

Meanwhile, Cayetano said tertiary specialty hospitals such as the Philippine Lung Center and the National Kidney Institute in Metro Manila should also be put up in Mindanao and the Visayas, especially in Cebu.

He said the presence of big hospitals like the two above would spur economic development within the surrounding areas.

Cayetano was in Cebu yesterday as one of the guest speakers of the Liga ng mga Barangay ng Pilipinas (Caraga Chapter). He then took time to meet with the jeepney drivers and operators.

Asked about his plan to run for president in the 2016 elections, he said he has not abandoned it yet.

He, however, said that if his survey rating would remain low, he may consider running for vice president instead. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/RHM (FREEMAN)