Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III. INQUIRER.NET PHOTO/CATHY MIRANDA
No less than the head of the Duterte administration’s economic team has defended Land Bank of the Philippines after President Duterte threatened to abolish the state-run lender for supposedly forgetting its mandate to serve the agriculture sector, pointing out that more than a fifth of its lending portfolio to date supported farmers, fishermen and agribusiness ventures.
In an interview on Tuesday night, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who also chairs Landbank, said that besides adhering to the President’s order that the lender further increase its exposure to agriculture, they would also report to Mr. Duterte either within the month or during the upcoming Cabinet meeting scheduled on Aug. 8 that the country’s fourth biggest bank in terms of consolidated assets was leading the pack in terms of assistance to the agriculture sector.
Landbank president and chief executive Cecilia Borromeo said that as of June this year, the bank’s exposure in terms of loans to small farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries amounted to P42.17 billion, or 5.27 percent, of the P799.64 billion total gross loan portfolio.
Landbank data showed that end-June loans to small fishermen reached P140 million, or 0.02 percent of total. The bank is mandated to finance the needs of farmers and fishers.
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At end-June, Landbank also had P119.52 billion (14.95 percent of total) in loans to agribusinesses, P2.59 billion (0.32 percent) to aqua-businesses and P55.21 billion (6.9 percent) to agri and agra-related projects of local government units and government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs).
Across the mandated sectors of agriculture and fisheries, the P177.32 billion in gross loans provided by Landbank accounted for 22.17 percent of the total loan portfolio.
