By Celeste Anna R. Formoso
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, July 21 (PNA) — Beneficiaries of the Palawan government’s micro-financing program will start receiving this month the financial support for their small businesses and livelihood activities.
Caesar Ventura, program director of the Micro- Financing Program of the provincial government, assured Monday that they will continue to provide small and manageable financial loans to residents, who have already started petite livelihood activities in the northern Palawan towns of El Nido, Roxas, San Vicente, and Taytay.
The continuation came after the program was already able to help beneficiaries in the southern part of Palawan, specifically in the towns of Aborlan, Narra, Brooke’s Point, and Sofronio Española.
Ventura said micro-financing for beneficiaries in the town of Quezon will be released also this July.
He explained that the program is for Palaweños, who have already started their own small businesses where the money they will loan will be used as additional capital, and will be paid without interest based on the period allotted for payment.
From southern Palawan, beneficiaries in northern Palawan are next with 200 beneficiaries per municipality, Ventura explained to the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Priorities in their list are focused on small-income and business earners, such as market stall owners in municipal public markets, tricycle owners, sari-sari store operators, farmers, fishermen, and entrepreneurs whose businesses are related to the tourism industry, and whose capitals are no more than PHP30,000.
The initial micro-financing loan the provincial government is willing to provide is PHP10,000 which can be paid in six months.
Payment of PHP60 will be collected on a daily basis for the borrowers to pay their micro-financing loans.
He added that beneficiaries, who will prove they are good payers can borrow again from the micro-financing of even bigger than the PHP10,000 initial offer.
Ventura also said they are expecting by September that the program will already include other municipalities, such as Araceli, Dumaran, Cuyo, Magsaysay, and Culion, Coron, Busuanga, and Linapacan in the Calamianes. (PNA)