STRUGGLING NO MORE

RENATO RAMIREZ TACLOBAN CITY

Renato Laroga Ramirez or Tata, as he is fondly called by family members, lost his mother when he was barely 10 years old. Looking back, he could still remember the pain and difficulty it caused him both physically and emotionally, as there would no longer be a mother to take care of his personal and school needs.

A few days after his mother’s burial, he was already at the Tacloban Public Market, peddling plastic bags. Although his father had a stall at the meat section, he chose to assist the wife of his elder brother who likewise had a stall at the fish section.

A few years after, he became his brother’s assistant in sourcing cattle and carabao from as far as Bohol and Cebu. In the following years, he dabbled between school and work until he finally obtained his degree in Marine Engineering at Leyte Institute of Technology. He returned to the market that same year, buying and selling cattle and carabao.

In 2008, he started his apprenticeship in an interisland vessel. Then he married a woman whose parents also had a meat stall at the Tacloban Public Market. His father-inlaw made him choose between boarding a vessel or focusing on the meat business. He chose the latter. With his P10,000 personal savings, he started his own stall at the meat section. Later on, he availed himself of a P50,000 loan from the Tacloban Meat Vendors MPC. Payment was to be made daily, but he requested that he be allowed to pay it on a weekly basis.

With the business doing fairly good enough, he was able to provide for the needs of his growing family.

Then, Super Typhoon Yolanda struck. Some of his collectibles were never paid, he lost a considerable amount of inventories. But he forced his way to return to business after the calamity, borrowing money from informal lenders.

The next years saw him struggling to keep his business afloat. He even contemplated leaving the market, especially when his brother, who had a business in Manila, died and his sister-in-law was asking him to manage its operations.

Then the Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pagasenso (P3) pilot implementation at the Tacloban Public Market was launched in February 2017. He did not apply for a loan because the Tacloban Meat Vendors MPC, of which he was an officer, was still operating at the time.

In the latter part of 2017, the cooperative formally closed. During the organizational meeting for the formation of a new cooperative spearheaded by SBC-P3 at Tacloban Public Market, he fully appreciated the features of P3.

In March 2018, he finally got his first loan amounting to P30,000, followed by P70,000 then P100,000. He availed of his fourth-cycle loan worth P150,000 recently.

Tata said that P3 came at a time when the survival of his business was at a crucial point. Because of P3’s low interest rate, he was able to recoup his previous losses. Had it not been for P3, he would have closed shop already.