By Ellson Quismorio

A pro-farmer lawmaker in the 18th Congress is backing President Rodrigo Duterte’s tough talk on the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), which according to the Chief Executive, has had a dismal record of helping farmers.

“Magsasaka Party-List supports the statement of the President in pushing Land Bank to provide more loans to the farmers,” Rep. Argel Cabatbat, a neophyte, said.

Cabatbat, who last week aligned himself with the Benny Abante-led House Minority Bloc, was referring to President Duterte’s remarks toward LBP in his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) last week.

In his speech, the populist leader threatened to ask Congress to “reconfigure” LBP in the event it continues to fail to cater to the needs of Filipino farmers, who are typically poor and needing capital.

Duterte particularly questioned the utter lack of LBP-financed agricultural enterprises and endeavors despite it being its supposed purpose.

He also called LBP, rather embarrassingly, as “the number one commercial bank in the Philippines.”

“I will give you until the end of July to give me a plan [on helping farmers] or else I will ask Congress to reconfigure you,” Duterte said in his SONA.

Cabatbat called this move a “step in the right direction.”

“It has the desired effect of pushing Land Bank to lend more to farmers and to make it more accessible,” he said.

Another pro-farmer group, Butil Party-List, also expressed full and unequivocal support to President Duterte’s call to retool the LBP so it can revert to its original mandate of supporting small farmers.

“Through the years, the supposed lending of the LBP to agriculture has been to corporate agriculture and never to small farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries,” former Butil Rep. Cecil Chavez said.

“Time and again, Butil Party-List has been saying this: Credit is the lifeblood of farm production. Accessible and affordable credit is critical to farm production. Farmers must have financial accessibility which would include government subsidy and grants,” she said.

Referring to Duterte’s pronouncements, Chavez said, “We can only hope that President Duterte will not be pressured by his economic team, which supports the status quo at the LBP, to change his mind about reforming the LBP.”

Despite agreeing with the President’s move, Cabatbat said that a more responsive LBP might not be enough to improve the overall situation of farmers in the country.

“Land Bank can only do so much considering the institutional requirements imposed by banks to lenders, which favor rich farmers over poor farmers. A more radical approach is needed to address the perennial issue of lack of access to credit by our poor farmers,” he said.