Fishermen group is P650, 000 richer

                                                                       By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – A group of fishermen in this city is P650 thousand richer after Representative Gina de Venecia and Senator Allan Peter Cayetano gave its members P500, 000 and P150, 000, respectively.

Seed Money: Senator Peter Allan Cayetano spoke before members
of the 1,500 strong members of Ulopan ng Sumisigay Ed Dagupan, 
Inc. (USADA) in Dagupan City early this month after he
gave them the initial tranche of financial
 assistance its president Ronaldo Cayabyab (2nd from left) 
can lend to its members.

Ronaldo Cayabyab, the president of the Ulopan ng Sumisigay Ed Dagupan, Inc (USADA),  said that early this year Congresswoman de Venecia (4^th District, Pangasinan) gave half-a-million pesos as first tranche of the P1 million she pledged to USADA while Cayetano gave early this month P150,00 as the first installment of the  seed money loan on its members.

“Ang sabi niya by January or February magdadagdag pa siya kung maganda ang pagtakbo ng USADA ,” he stressed in Filipino.

Cayabyab said the senator did no say the amount he would be giving on the second tranche.

Cayabyab said the P150,000 that Cayetano gave will be a loan to its members who are under the mercy of the usurious rate lent by the Indian nationals who are into the 5/6 or 20 percent interest padding loan.

“P5000.00 ang ibibigay namin sa isang miembro na nagtitinda ng isda. P200 a month – that’s 4 percent interest no collateral. Basta member siya nagtitinda, nandito siya at nagtitinda na umaasa sa 5/6 iyon ang unang bibigyan”.

Cayabyab said his organization that has been operating for years here has more than 1, 500 head of families as members.