(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, July 22, gave Land Bank until the end of July to present to him a plan of “reconfiguration.”
In his State of the Nation Address, Duterte said Landbank should return to helping farmers and not just focus on commercial transactions.
When asked what exactly he wanted reconfigured in a press conference after SONA, Duterte said Land Bank “must participate..create cooperatives again, and for Land Bank to go to the mountains.”
He said this was because the bank was “maybe crafted to serve enterprises or whatever there is banking needs of the people who can barely negotiate with the bank.”
He said these included land reform beneficiaries whose applications to loans might have been rejected because their collaterals cannot be accepted.
“They can have loans, get fertilizers, seedlings. They have to serve primarily the people,” Duterte said.
According to the President, if Land Bank fails to present the plan, Congress should just “abolish” it, and include the money in the developmental funds of congressmen.
“Land Bank was primarily intended to serve people,” he said.