The Small Business Corporation on Friday sought the help of Parañaque 1st District Representative Edwin Olivarez to augment their budget to aid more micro, small, and medium enterprises.

"As our charter mandates us to assist the MSMEs, mostly in financing, we ask Congress to add to our budget. Our budget is indeed a pity compared to LandBank and other government financing institutions," said SBCorp president and CEO Robert Bastillo in DAILY TRIBUNE's Asian Innovation Forum, coinciding with the opening of "Tindahan ni Tarsee" Bazaar at Ayala Malls Manila Bay in Parañaque City.

He added: "Yet, our mandate covers 99.5 percent of all registered businesses in the country. I find it very ironic that up to now, we keep saying that our economy depends on MSMEs and we should help them. Yet, our corporate capital is a minuscule amount compared to the trillions of pesos for other government financing institutions," Bastillo added.

The current financing gap in the country, Bastillo said, is around P300 to P400 billion, while SBCorp's capital is not even 10 percent of the gap.

"That's why there is an ongoing revision of the Magna Carta for MSMEs in Congress. As long as the Magna Carta is not yet amended, then we cannot increase our capital to serve more MSMEs," he said.

In 2019, the Department of Trade and Industry, SBCorp's mother agency, said the department was pushing for legislation to amend the Magna Carta for MSMEs and institutionalize the microlending program "Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso," or P3 program.

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, SBCorp launched the CARES program, a zero-interest loan, with a P1-billion budget funded internally.

With the program's success, the House of Representatives allocated P10 billion under the Bayanihan to Recover as One (Bayanihan 2) for the CARES loan.

The Department of Budget and Management, however, only released P8.08 billion to SBCorp, the financing arm of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Of the total released fund, P4 billion was allotted for multi-sectoral MSMEs and P4 billion for tourism-related MSMEs. The rest was spent on the mobilization and operating expenses to roll out the microfinancing program.

Olivarez, chairperson of the House Committee on Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations, though not directly committing to Bastillo's request, affirmed that MSMEs should have additional funding included in the government's focus on economic recovery three years after the global contagion.

"But we cannot do this alone, as we need the help of the private sector. The GOCCs and non-government organizations are a great help to us," he said.

"It is important to guide the MSMEs for product enhancement. And the city government of Parañaque is willing to assist our microfinancing institutions in financing our MSMEs and for the economic fulfillment of our whole nation," he added.

DAILY TRIBUNE extolled

Meanwhile, Bastillo extolled the DAILY TRIBUNE for launching "Tindahan ni Tarsee," which provides more than 70 MSME exhibitors with a free venue to showcase and sell their products. 

"DAILY TRIBUNE is the only newspaper I know that goes beyond journalism. They don't just write and print the stories and upload them online, but they walk the talk. Organizing events like this is no mean feat, as they are not charging the exhibitors, imagine, in Ayala Mall," he said.

He said the program is a great help to MSMEs, considered the true backbone of the Philippine economy.

"I treat MSMEs as our new breed of heroes, not OFWs. More than 60 percent of all employment comes from MSMEs. Aside from this, more than one-third of our GDP (gross domestic product), or the economy's total output, comes from MSMEs. That is why, for me, the MSME contribution is greater compared to the combined remittances of our OFWs, though some OFWs are also MSMEs," he said.

Other AIF speakers include Angkas founder and CEO George Royeca; Renan Santiago, the head of Retail and MSMEs of Maya; Parañaque Councilors Pablo Olivarez Jr. and Wangu Sotto; and Don Garcia, Manila Manager of Cebu CFI.

Launched in December 2020, "Tindahan ni Tarsee" is an online special project of DAILY TRIBUNE that provides a platform for local MSMEs in support of their efforts to stay afloat amid the pandemic.

When face-to-face gatherings were fully greenlighted by the government in 2022, DAILY TRIBUNE brought "Tindahan ni Tarsee" to the malls. It partnered with Ayala Malls to provide MSMEs with a wider selling ground and market to earn better profits.

This year's "Tindahan ni Tarsee" will run until Sunday, 10 December.