House okays bill condoning agri loan penalties

The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to condone the unpaid loan interests and penalties of farmers, fisherfolk, and agrarian reform beneficiaries.

With a vote of 219-0, the lower chamber approved House Bill No. 187, or the “Agrarian and Agricultural Loan Restructuring and Condonation Act,” one of the legislative priorities of the 17th Congress.

The bill, authored by Coop-Natcco Partylist Reps. Anthony Bravo and Sabiniano Canama, seeks to promote comprehensive rural development and agrarian reform by freeing farmers, fisherfolk, and agrarian reform beneficiaries from the “bondage of debt and poverty.”

The measure aims to facilitate the reintegration of the financial and bank standing of the beneficiaries and give them access to new and additional government credit programs.

The bill sets the following conditions: force majeure, or to market aberration; payments of not less than 5 percent of the loan principal shall have been paid at the time of application for condonation; a graduation process shall be followed in consonance with the plan of payment such that a borrower shall be granted a one-time condonation only; and the condonation of unpaid interests, penalties and surcharges conforms with general banking laws.

The bill seeks to provide leniency on unsettled interests, penalties, and surcharges on loans availed of by farmers, fishermen, and agrarian reform beneficiaries from the Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Agriculture, People’s Credit and Finance Corporation, Cooperative Development Authority, National Food Authority, and the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corporation.