Bank demand letters terrify Pampanga farmers

CANDABA, Pampanga—Leony Aronce calls himself these days the “pekatatakut” (the most terrified person) in his village of Mangumbali in this farming town in Pampanga province.

The fear comes from a letter, supposedly from Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), demanding him to pay P149,941.02.

This was the outstanding balance as of March 31, minus interest and penalty, according to a July 1 letter signed by Jingle Marie Magno, field attorney of  LBP Field Legal Services Region 3-A in the capital of San Fernando City, west of this flood-prone village.

The letter does not state when Aronce contracted the debt or loan and what project it funded.

“I did not receive that amount. I did not take a mortgage because I don’t own a land or own a beautiful house. My house is dilapidated. I’m not also paying any amortization for a land because I am not an agrarian reform beneficiary,” said Aronce, 53.

He did not remember signing any document from  LBP. Aronce said he had no means to pay off a debt because he was earning a living only by working on rice lands of landowning families and getting a share from the harvests. His five children plant vegetables.

Aronce is one of the 50 farmers in Barangay (village) Mangumbali who received the same letter from Magno, said village chief Nestor Mangilit.

The amounts vary, going as high as P250,000, he said.

The rest did not want to speak on record, afraid of the possible liabilities they could face.

Gilda Pico, LBP president and chief executive officer, sounded surprised when told in a telephone interview on Monday that the agency sent demand letters to farmers like Aronce.

“We don’t lend directly. We course [assistance] through cooperatives and rural banks,” she told the Inquirer.

Pico said she would have the matter studied.

Peewee Villanueva, head of the LBP corporate communications department, said “there is basis” for the demand letter. She said Aronce was one of 12 farmers in a cluster who borrowed money from the agency in 1996 when it directly lent money. The loan was made under the Gintong Ani program of the administration of former President Fidel Ramos, she added.

Villanueva said Aronce signed a “promissory note” dated Oct. 25, 1996.

Reached by telephone, Aronce said he did not remember signing such type of document. He insisted that he had not borrowed or accepted anything from  LBP.

Mangilit said no cooperatives operate in his village or rural banks in the town proper. “We have none here so LBP has no conduit here [for loans],” he said.

To him, the letter and the envelope looked like the official stationery of the government financial institution. The letter to Aronce carries the numbers “10478700” in red at the bottom right.

What scared Aronce was Magno’s warning that LBP would sue him if he reneges on his obligation to pay the debt.

“They’re surprised or shocked or afraid because they are being made to pay for debts they did not get or benefit from,” Mangilit said.

Aronce said he received the letter sometime in August and hid it because he was afraid of the repercussions.

At one point, he said he wanted to go to LBP but dropped the plan because he did not know where to find it.

Aronce said the scandals and misuse of public funds happening in the government made him more afraid, prompting him to ask help from former Mayor Jerry Pelayo.

In separate interviews, Mangilit and Pelayo said they did not endorse or certify any loan for any farmer in the town.

Mayor Rene Maglanque could not be reached for comment.

Last week, the government sued him for plunder for allegedly receiving P75 million in kickbacks on behalf of former Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman. Maglanque has been avoiding media interviews since last week.

Pelayo said he would ask an LBP official to meet the farmers and clear them from any obligation to pay.