LEGAZPI CITY, Sept. 13 (PNA) — Over 300 public utility vehicle drivers and operators in this city have received an opportunity to gain additional income from Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano under his PTK (Presyo, Trabaho, Kita/Kaayusan) program.
The drivers and operators are members of the Parada-2A Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association (TODA) which on Friday received Php100,000 as seed money for a micro-financing program under Cayetano’s Kontra 5-6 project.
“We hope that with this fund, local entrepreneurs in the city will be able to borrow money and pay very minimal interests for their benefit and their association,” Cayetano said, adding, “Hindi na sila kailangang humiram sa 5-6.”
The 5-6 is a financing scheme wherein the lender gets 20-percent interest for his capital; for instance, a Php100 loan will get a Php20 interest.
The term varies from one month or for 15 days or one week.
In response, Noli Broqueza, the association’s president, thanked the senator and assured him that their members will have easy access to the PTK fund.
Prior to Cayetano’s assistance, Broqueza said, most of their members used to have difficulty in sustaining their livelihood because of the lack of access to capital provided them by government.
Hence, they often resorted to borrowing money from 5-6 loan sharks that charge usurious interests.
“Kaya nagpapasalamat kami kay Kuya Alan. Ngayon ay may kapital na kaming makakatulong sa pagpapalago ng aming hanap-buhay (That’s why we thank Kuya Alan. Now, we have capital to augment our income),” Broqueza said.
He said their association will use the money for lending to its members so that they will no longer depend on 5-6 lenders who charge high interest.
The group’s initiative, Cayetano said, inspires him to help more farmers, fishers, transport groups and small entrepreneurs.
He said he is optimistic that PTK will also result in real change for the association’s members, like it has done for other groups around the country.
“Through the PTK, I want to create real change in families’ lives by making them benefit from our growing economy,” the recent Legazpi City visitor said.
To date, programs under the PTK agenda already extended assistance to a total of 161 cooperatives and organizations in the country, including three associations in Albay.
Cayetano’s initiative fulfills a promise he made during his campaign in 2013, when various sectors he consulted with in his listening tours identified high prices of goods, lack of jobs and poor income as their main problems.
“Given the success achieved by the PTK beneficiaries, I am calling on government to institutionalize this kind of micro-financing scheme throughout the country and create real change for the agriculture, transport and micro-enterprise sectors,” the senator said. (PNA)