SOMETIME back, in one of my earlier blogs about microfinance in this country, I was reminded by a reader of the early pioneering work in this area by Dr Jaime A. Alip from Los Baños. Well, some interesting things happened since that blog.

First, I got to meet Dr. Alip himself after he gave a talk before usually jaded businessmen and entrepreneurs in the Entrepreneurship Forum organized by the Asian Institute of Management. He mentioned in his talk that he started the CARD MRI network sometime in the mid-80s with the magnificent amount of twenty pesos! I mentioned to him that if I had met him in 1989 — especially in that fateful meeting organized by the late Gasty Ortigas, then president of AIM, and Ernie Garilao (who was executive director of PBSP then) — I would have very willingly rammed grant money down his throat. The donors and creditors who had tried to work through our fledgling government unit, the CCPAP, were willing to try and funnel a certain amount of funds directly to NGOs instead of through the ponderous — and leaky — government process.

When I mentioned this chance encounter the same evening to my wife she exclaimed that her family, which has its origins in the municipality of Biñan, Laguna, used to go to the lanzones farm of a certain Dr. E. Alip, a best friend of my late father-in-law. A text message to the younger Dr. Alip confirmed that the person in question must have been his grandfather, Dr. E. Alip, the historian. Then, my wife pointed out Dr. Alip the historian to me in our wedding pictures. Interesting.

Remembering that a classmate of mine in one of the big three banks was in charge of branch lending, which included loans to the microfinance sector, I asked him if my friend did business with him. He replied that my friend had just lent him (through the bank, of course) about P200 million that same day! In a later gathering of my college class to honor a balikbayan classmate, my friend confirmed that he had indeed lent that amount to Dr. Alip’s CARD MRI network and that they were very good debtors.

Another interesting point brought up by Dr. Alip is that his network is “grant-free,” meaning, they don’t rely on grants. They take out loans from commercial or development institutions and lend these out without taking a hit. Another interesting deviation from the model developed by Dr. Yunus is the fact that Dr. Alip’s beneficiaries are expected each to be responsible for her (only women are subjects of the network) own obligation. Unlike the original microfinance model which usually has a group of five and only two people being able to borrow at a time, with the remaining three making sure the two pay up on time.