Duterte vows to run after loan sharks: “This has to stop. What are the laws against this?! Aaysuin ko to!”

President Rodrigo Duterte made a decision right there and then to take down loan sharks. No more 5-6 schemes to fool the poor. Images combined credit  Inquirer and Philippine Plus

President Rodrigo Duterte had long shown a soft heart for the poor and the iron will to take down those who abuse and take advantage of the poor to put themselves in a better situation.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy disclosed a narrative on what happened during the 26^th Cabinet meeting when Secretary Sonny Dominguez was explaining to the President the reason why chicken is more expensive in the public market than in groceries.

Badoy recalled how the conversation went, saying that grocery store owners can easily buy chicken straight from the supplier whereas market vendors often had to borrow money to buy products they can market.

These market vendors  end up in 5-6 schemes where the loan they make has to be paid at a certain higher price due to interest, which prompts vendor to sell their products at a price that can give them just enough to pay off debts and have a meal.

Instead of rising above their poverty, they dig a deeper hole because of these loan sharks who take advantage of the poor’s desperation.

Upon hearing this, Duterte made a decision right there and then to take down loan sharks. No more 5-6 schemes to fool the poor.

Badoy recalls the President saying, “This has to stop. What are the laws against this?!” which then prompted discussion on anti-usury laws which the President vowed to enforce and take down illegal moneylenders.

Badoy expressed her admiration for the President, noting his strong will in pursuing what is right and just, especially for the poor.

Chicken vendor in public wet market in Q.C. Image credit to ABS-CBN News

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During the 26th Cabinet meeting, Sec Sonny Dominguez was explaining to the President why chicken sold in the market was more expensive than chicken sold in the groceries.

He said it was bec grocery store owners had more capital while wet market vendors had none and had to borrow money from usurers at high interest rates. 5/6, in other words.

So they need to patong more yet earn so little –so much less than the already-rich grocery owner and of course the walangyang 5/6’er.

They are then unable to get out of these debts. it eats them up so all they do is work to pay for the interest on these loans alone.

Then poverty is something they can never climb out of. They get sucked into this dark hole even more.

This is how the poor get even poorer.

We were having dinner at that time. I looked at the President bec I love watching his reaction when talks turn to the poor getting abused. Sarap talaga kasi yon na yon ang nararamdaman ko.

Dakilang Resbak ng Bayan. That’s our President.

Like what happened in Yolanda.

He was the ONLY govt official who mirrored the rage, the grief, the sorrow I felt while the heartless and incompetent and corrupt Dinky Soliman, Mar Roxas, Noynoy Aquino did NOTHING.

Except steal.

From the poor.

In their darkest hour.

I looked at the President and I saw that his face had darkened. He stopped chewing, dropped his fork on his plate and pushed his plate away.

Uh-oh, I said. This is gonna be fun.

Daming mura. Yon yung dessert namin LOL.

He was sooo mad.

“This has to stop!”,he said. “What are the laws against this?!”,he asked. He went on and on and on. He was so hurt, almost like a wounded animal. Like a father whose children have been abused and mistreated.

So anti-usury laws were discussed and he vowed he would run after these loan sharks who feed off the desperation and fear of the poor. 

Wait lang, sabi nya. Aayusin ko to.

You know, had you been there, you’d have seen me smile a most beatific smile because I was so comforted.

All those years I worked with and for the poor where I felt they had no one but me grieved me—and what really could I give them but precious little? Nothing that could change their lives for better and take them out of poverty really.

Because the most powerful ones were the most indifferent towards the most disempowered.

And so I basked in the comfort of the President’s tirade.

This is a man who gets important things done.

You know that song of his that plays as he enters the room? “Ipaglalaban Ko”? That is who our President is.

Our defender and protector. More so the defender and protector of those who have no one.

If I were engaged in 5/6 now, I’d be quivering in my boots.

There can be no real progress if we leave the poor behind. I believe this.

I am overjoyed the man we managed to install in the highest office of the land believes this as well and will stop at nothing to snatch the poor out of the jaws of the monster, Poverty.

Upward and onward, Philippines!

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Source: Facebook/Lorraine Badoy