The Hundred Thousand Peso House

Meet Paglaum Multipurpose Cooperative (PMPC), Kiva’s new partner in Plaridel, Misamis Occidental, Philippines.

As a co-op, its clients are members. They contribute savings, take loans, and earn profits as the institution increases its reach and profitability. Since 1982 PMPC has been working in a whole range activities, including microcredit; microinsurance; off-grid solar power; rice harvesting services such as processing, storage, marketing, and trucking; and sponsored preschool through college education for the children of indigent families. The co-op also sponsors a children’s savings plan, to which their parents contribute.

The co-op members gather weekly for meetings. A PMPC loan officer goes over news and announcements. The members pledge to honesty and integrity, and the PMPC employees pledge the same in return. Every chapter then breaks into small clusters of half a dozen members, with a cluster leader taking the week’s repayments and counting them aloud so the entire group can hear the member’s name, loan terms, and repayment amount.

Then the Chapter Leader, along with a group-appointed Treasurer and Auditor, record all this information in a log book and again state it aloud for all the members to hear. Finally the PMPC loan officer performs a verification of the group’s accounting.

This Chapter Leader, Nita Morequio, is a ten-year member of the co-operative and an overwhelming success story. I asked her whether or not being a member of PMPC had changed her life. She said:

“Before I was a member, I made 50 pesos [$1] a day. My husband caught fish and I sold them. Then I got a loan for a pump-boat. Now I have three pump-boats. I got a motorbike for my husband and have paid off the loan. Now I make enough money every day that I can afford to make my payments on the 100,000 peso loan I got to build my new house. And now I have two kids, and I can send them both to college.”

To see all of PMPC’s fundraising loans, click here.

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