The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is offering rehabilitation financing support packages to cooperatives to help tide them over the economic crisis resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
DBP president-CEO Emmanuel Herbosa said in his report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III that cooperatives can avail of concessional loans and other financing options through the Rehabilitation Support Program on Severe Events (RESPONSE), which is also open to non-borrowers of the bank.
For existing borrowers, the program offers options for deferment of loan repayments of up to 6 months or the restructuring of their loans, Herbosa said.
“This is on top of the mandatory grace period under Republic Act (RA) No. 11469 or the Bayanihan To Heal As One Act to address the ensuing financial constraints of our clients and to give time for our clients to recoup losses incurred during the temporary closure of their business operations,” Herbosa said in his report to Dominguez.
The DBP RESPONSE program is open to public and private institutions located in or operating in areas declared under states of calamity.
He said the RESPONSE program is the DBP’s contribution to the appeal by cooperatives to President Duterte for the government to come up with stimulus packages for their sector and for them to be allowed to avail of ideal rates and terms on loans.
The cooperatives’ request was coursed through COOP-NATCCO partylist Rep. Sabiniano Canama, who chairs the House committee on cooperatives development, and the Philippine Cooperative Center (PCC) chaired by Garibaldi Leonardo.
In their joint letter, Canama and Leonardo thanked President Duterte for the swift implementation of the Bayanihan Law and expressed their support for the actions and policies he has undertaken to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The cooperative sector fully supports the call of President Duterte in addressing COVID-19 and would be happy to help as well in whatever way we can in this time of crisis,” they said.
In line with the provisions of the Bayanihan Law, the government is implementing the P205-billion Social Amelioration Program (SAP), which is the largest social protection initiative in the country’s history, to benefit 18 million to 23 million poor families and informal sector workers hit the hardest by the pandemic’s economic fallout.
Another economic relief package has also been rolled out by the government—the P51-billion Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) program—for the benefit of 3.4 million workers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which employ the majority of the country’s labor force.
Other ongoing efforts by the government to blunt the impact of the COVID-19 crisis include: (1) The extension of tax filing and payment deadlines; (2) a 30-day grace period for the payment of all loans, including credit card payments and pawnshop loans, falling due within the ECQ period, without imposition of interest on interest or any additional charges, fees or penalties; (3) a credit guarantee program to cover P120 billion-worth of loans to small businesses, and (4) proposals to the Congress to provide stimulus to the economy.
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