MANILA, Philippines — State-run Land Bank of the Philippines has launched a series of assistance programs to help residents of the war-torn Marawi City recover.

Landbank president and CEO Alex Buenaventura said the bank is commited to help “restore normalcy” in the lives of the residents affected by last year’s battle in Marawi City by providing financial and other assistance programs.

Among these programs is the Landbank Calamity Rehabilitation Support program for Marawi and other local government units (LGU) in Lanao del Sur.

The program allows existing clients of Landbank to avail of a loan restructuring scheme, while new clients may avail of loans at a low interest rate with longer payment tenor, according to Buenaventura.

Under the restructuring option, short-term loans of existing clients may be extended up to a maximum of five years, inclusive of one-year grace period on both principal and interest. Term loans may also be extended for an additional five years, with maximum grace period of three years on principal and one year on interest.

New clients, for their part, may avail of loans to fund the construction or repair of their housing units.

Landbank said special credit programs will also be available for cooperatives, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), non-government organizations, countryside financial institutions, schools, universities and colleges, and LGUs.

Meanwhile, Landbank said it has also extended the Harnessing Agribusiness Opportunities through Robust and Vibrant Entrepreneurship Supportive of Peaceful Transformation program to the residents of Marawi.

This program provides concessional loans to agribusiness enterprises, farmers’ cooperatives and MSMEs for their capital investments, operations, expansion initiatives and agriculture-related projects.

It is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency through a P1.76 billion official development assistance.

Buenaventura said the Landbank also turned over 60 units of water filtration systems to select barangays to benefit around 6,000 residents. He said these portable water filtration systems can filter up to one million gallons of water and can last for five to 10 years.

Landbank also distributed about 700 books to help Marawi children recover from the trauma caused by the war.

The bank also donated a total of P15 million to the provincial government of Lanao del Sur and the city government to Marawi to augment their funds for rehabilitation, Buenaventura said.

“While we each do our part to contribute to the Bangon Marawi program, now is the time for us to truly come together and unify our efforts to ensure the effective implementation of recovery programs,” Buenaventura said.

This article first appeared on www.PhilStar.com