THE Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) has extended a P12-billion credit facility to the Department of Agriculture (DA) to support the department’s initiatives to boost the production of rice and other food crops.

LandBank president and chief executive officer Gilda E. Pico said that of the total amount, P5 billion is earmarked for rice production, while P7 billion will go to other crops and commodities.

“We have earmarked the said amounts for these various economic activities, but we are ready to extend more financial support if there is a bigger demand for credit assistance from qualified farmers’ organizations such as cooperatives and from the small and medium enterprises sector,” said Pico.

For its part, the DA said P2.54 billion in credit facility will be extended to livestock and poultry production, P2 billion for high-value commercial crops, P1.5 billion for fisheries, P700 million for fisheries and P300 million for corn.

Last year LandBank released P2.92 billion to help boost palay harvests and P210 million for corn production.

Pico said the bank released extended loans totaling P26.8 billion to 2.6 million farmers nationwide.

In 2007 LandBank launched a Development Advocacy Program that offers alternative and more flexible credit schemes to better suit the characteristics, requirements as well as paying capabilities of small farmers and fisherfolk, including small- and medium-scale borrowers.

This program veers away from the rigid requirements of traditional, collateral-based lending and instead adopts an enterprise-based approach in extending credit and other assistance to its intended beneficiaries.

CONSIDERING the late start of the summer season this year, the National Power Corp. (Napocor) is looking at its power output, particularly for Luzon, to be more than enough to meet the demand for electricity this hot season.

THE spike in the price of imported rice in the world market has prompted the National Food Authority (NFA) to review its budget for rice imports.

THE Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) has extended a P12-billion credit facility to the Department of Agriculture (DA) to support the department’s initiatives to boost the production of rice and other food crops.

DOMESTIC manufacturers called on the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to correct its administrative order on voluntary disclosure as they believe the policy only emboldens further unscrupulous importers to misdeclare their shipments, as they are still allowed to avail themselves of the program even after they have been issued an audit notification letter (ANL).

TAXPAYERS’ money, instead of being plowed to better social services and other programs of the government, would instead go to another state-owned company should the government decide to renationalize Petron Corp.

A LOCAL nongovernment organization (NGO) warned the government that the social costs of continuing the Laiban Dam project will far outweigh the economic benefits the dam will give residents.

CLARK FREE PORT—Over a year after receiving the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation (Capa) Low-cost Airport of the Year 2006 award, the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) again bagged the Airport of the Year award for airports with below 15 million passengers annually at the 2008 Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific Aerospace and Defense Awards Banquet held in Singapore on March 14.