MANILA, Philippines — No less than the head of the economic team has defended the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to abolish the state-run lender for supposedly forgetting its mandate to serve the agriculture sector.
This while data showed that over a fifth of LBP’s lending portfolio to date supported farmers, fishermen, and agribusinesses.
In an interview Tuesday night, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, who also chairs LBP, said that besides adhering to the President’s order that the lender further increase its exposure to agriculture, they will also report to Duterte either within the month or during the upcoming Cabinet meeting scheduled on August 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.
LBP president and chief executive Cecilia C. 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.
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LBP data showed that end-June loans to small fishermen reached P140 million or 0.02 percent of total.
LBP was mandated to cater to farmers and fishers’ borrowings.
