BY JIMBO OWEN B. GULLE, Manila Standard
MEMBERS of a women’s vegetable farmers’ association in Nueva Vizcaya should have discussed their problems within their group instead of filing estafa complaints with the Provincial Prosecutors’ Office, the provincial board member in the center of their dispute said.
In an email interview with the Standard, Provincial Board Member Roland Carub said that as founder of TIBIK (Timpuyog Ti Babbalasang Idi Kalman, or Association of Ladies in an Earlier Season in Ilocano) in the province, he wished the members of the group’s chapters in Ambaguio and Villaverde towns would have discussed their problems among themselves or approached him for guidance.
Twenty-two women—16 from TIBIK Ambaguio and six from TIBIK Villaverde—are accusing Carub and officers of the Cebu People’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Cebu Co-op) satellite office in Solano town of swindling them of funds in the guise of membership fees in the cooperative.
According to their complaint, the co-op collected fees from them on the promise of securing loans for their farms from several government agencies, which the women claimed have never developed.
Carub disputed this to the Standard, saying he has not stopped following up their loan applications, but they are still being processed and have been hampered by lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Patungkol po sa estado ng application ng mga complainants sa loan nila, ay hindi naman po tayo huminto sa pag-follow up sa lending conduit ng DA (Department of Agriculture) at DTI (Department of Trade and Industry),” he said.
“As of now ay pwede ulit silang ma-follow up sa status ng kani-kanilang loans kung may approval,” Carub added.
He confirmed that he received the women’s complaint filed with the PPO on August 6, and in fact had submitted his counter-affidavit to the provincial prosecutor on August 14.
The provincial lawmaker also confirmed that along with his siblings, he founded TIBIK in Nueva Vizcaya, which has grown to 71 registered Workers’ Associations with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) with over 3,000 members across the province.
Carub said that he became a member of Cebu Co-op in 2018 and helped it establish a satellite in Solano, the province’s commercial and financial center, on March 18, 2019. The farmers’ group is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the co-op is listed on both the SEC and the Cooperative Development Authority, he added.
Both TIBIK Nueva Vizcaya and Cebu Co-op also hold office at the Carub Building in Barangay Quirino in Solano, which the board member confirmed is owned by his family. TIBIK’s provincial livelihood training center is right beside the building, he added.
Considering his personal stake in both TIBIK and Cebu Co-op, Carub said he could not understand why the women in Ambaguio and Villaverde would not approach him first with their complaints.
“Ang nagreklamo sa akin ay ang TIBIK Ambaguio na 12 complainants. Ang inyong lingkod po ay nagtataka rin kung bakit umabot ang ganitong reklamo na pwede naman ilagay sa pag uusapan mula sa mismo sa chapter nila, sa barangay or sa aking opisina,” he told the Standard.
Carub noted that even before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, he would ask the TIBIK chapters how they were doing, even visiting their group chats and Facebook pages to check on their situations amid the quarantine lockdowns.
He said he has sponsored livelihood training, seminars, and workshops for all TIBIK members to sustain them during the lockdowns, and held online programs and activities for each chapter—even for the dozen women who complained against him, the board member noted.
“Binibili ng inyong lingkod ang kanilang produkto at heto naman ay akin ipamahagi rin sa mga iba pang TIBIK chapters gaya ng mga gulay at bigas o grocery items. Akin personal na pananaw ay bakit nga ba sila galit sa akin? (I even bought their produce and distributed them to the other chapters, like vegetables, rice, and groceries. So, I wonder, why are they mad at me?),” Carub told the Standard.
As for the loans being processed through Cebu Co-op, he said the cooperative is a lending conduit of the DA through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, which oversees the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program that farmers and fisherfolk can access.
Carub noted that the Standard itself ran the story on PLEA’s launch on its Sept. 10, 2017 issue (written by Ben Moses Ebreo—Editor), and that it was a pet project of then-Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol.
It included the P3 (Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso) program pushed by President Rodrigo Duterte for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) for them to avoid usurious or “5-6” loans, he noted.