Livelihood innovation and green enterprise models are essential in strengthening the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), former Senator Cynthia Villar emphasized.

Community-based programs that transform waste into marketable products continue to create jobs and generate income for thousands of families, she underlined.

Speaking on the sidelines of Tindahan ni Tarsee, DAILY TRIBUNE’S initiative that champions MSMEs through market exposure and support programs, Villar said the mission of Villar SIPAG closely aligns with the event’s goal of empowering small businesses.

“We build livelihood projects that employ people who have no work, and we teach them how,” Villar said, citing initiatives such as weaving waterlily baskets, converting waste plastics into school chairs, processing coconut husks into coconet, and turning household kitchen waste into organic fertilizer.

“Because of that, we save money on throwing away our garbage, which the local government spends. At the same time, we create livelihoods, jobs, and we have a product too,” she added. “Everybody’s happy. There is employment, and there is a product.”

Villar said programs that recycle waste into livelihoods help small enterprises innovate and eventually scale up, mainly when supported by machinery grants and local government assistance.

“[W]e gave them [the] budget so that every town in the Philippines can produce their own organic fertilizer,” she said. “[F]armers no longer need to buy organic fertilizers… It’s all machinery, and that’s what the government provides.”

The former senator also urged stronger consumer support for local products but stressed that MSMEs must first be equipped to match the quality of imported goods.

“We need to train them so they can produce good products which will compare with the imported products,” she said. “They need training, help them mechanize, give them better facilities.”

Fund, mechanize the farmers

Moreover, asked how farm-based enterprises help strengthen food security and rural economies, the former lawmaker cited Republic Act 11203, or the rice tariffication law (RTL), which she authored and sponsored.

Passed in 2019, the RTL replaced quantitative restrictions on rice imports with tariffs. Villar believes its goals are to lower rice prices, improve farming operations, and ensure food security through liberalization, or opening the Philippine market to more rice exporters.

Under this law, the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund was created, with revenues from tariffs distributed to farmers in the form of mechanization, seeds and credits.

“Machines are given so that farmers can be efficient. They give better seeds so they can produce more. In a way, they become competitive. Because based on study, we are not competitive, we are not mechanized. Our seeds are not better,” Villar said.

She also cited the need for capacity building, not just providing machinery, through vocational courses offered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

Formerly serving as chairperson of the agriculture and environment committees, Villar’s legislative record includes the Coconut Farmers Trust Fund Act; authoring the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016 (RA 10845), strengthened by the Anti-Agricultural Sabotage Act of 2024 (RA 12022); and the Free Irrigation Service Act (RA 10969).

Fulfilling a mission

Villar’s SIPAG (Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance), established in 1995, focuses on poverty reduction through livelihood development, environmental stewardship and community empowerment.

Its projects range from nutrition caravans and medical missions to river rehabilitation, OFW repatriation and entrepreneurship programs. The foundation aims to help Filipinos “rise beyond their limitations and pursue meaningful lives.”