Gov. Joseph Marañon said the Negros Occidental provincial government will release P25 million on Thursday for the thirteenth month pay of employees but he is saddened that about half of the amount will go to money lenders and usurers who charge from 10 to 15 percent interest on loans.

“I was informed that there are about seven to 10 persons who lend money to Capitol employees, some of whom also work for the provincial government, including one at the provincial Public Information Division,” the governor said.

He said these are on top of the salary loans of the Capitol employees from the Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines and the Capitol Government Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative.

“My failure as governor is not being able to stop them from borrowing from usurers. When I first became governor I was hoping that by strengthening the Capitol employees cooperative I would be able to eliminate this practice,” he said.

However, apparently this did not solve the problem, the Capitol employees still patronize the usurers and it is very frustrating, “if there are no givers there are no takers,” he said.

The excessive interest rates of these lenders make life for the employees miserable because they surrender their ATM cards to them, he said.

Marañon said he cannot stop the lenders but he pities the employees.*CPG

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