Ex-rebel granted P100K Landbank loan

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 13, 2023): Ex-rebel granted P100K Landbank loan (By Che Palicte)

FINANCIAL LOAN. Doming Estrera, a former rebel from Davao Oriental province, is the surrenderer of the New People’s Army to be granted by the Landbank of the Philippines a loan amounting to PHP100,000. Speaking to the media Wednesday (July 12, 2023) in Davao City, Estrera says he opened a sari-sari store and is currently engaged in online selling of clothes after his surrender to the government in 2016. (Photo courtesy of 10ID)

DAVAO CITY – A former rebel from Davao Oriental province is the first-ever in the Davao Region to be granted a financial loan amounting to PHP100,000 by the government-owned Landbank of the Philippines.

Doming Estrera, president of the Davao Oriental Former Rebel's Association (DOFRA), said he was granted the loan because he managed to properly invest the PHP65,000 that he received in 2018 from the government's the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (ECLIP).

Estrera, a former communist New People’s Army member, returned to the folds of the law in 2016 and used the money from ECLIP to open a sari-sari store.

“We are now living normal lives. The majority of us have engaged in small business ventures," he said in a press conference organized by the Army in this city Wednesday afternoon.

Estrera, a former supply officer in the NPA, credited the success of his small business to his business management skills.

This trait, he said, convinced Landbank to loan him PHP100,000 in 2018 to start an online business selling ready-to-wear clothes. He said the business is being directly-managed by his daughter.

Accordong to Estrera, DOFRA is a federated organization of NPA surrenderers in Davao Oriental with 1,235 members and 11 chapters.

The group, he said, is engaged in various livelihood ventures with the assistance of the government.

This year, Estrera said the association's furniture shop received a livelihood grant mounting to PHP300,000 from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, which he said has generated a PHP100,000 income within six months.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1205536