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Cataag Compound, San Joaquin St., Ormoc City, Leyte, Philippines 6541
Tels. 63-053-255-3516 & 63-053-560-6441; Email: [email protected]
History of Pagtinabangay Foundation
Pagtinabangay Foundation was founded by four young men and a woman in 1989, a time when non-government organizations were enjoying greater democratic space under the administration of President Corazon Aquino. The first ever democratic elections were over, and, once more, traditional politics triumphed. Attempts at introducing "alternative politics" failed.
Those who shifted from street parliament to electoral struggle were badly trounced. It was time to go back to the basics. NGOs saw the futility of engaging in politics when the constituency could be bought during elections.
Moreover, the promised reforms under the new dispensation did not materialize. The peasants remained poor as ever. The urban poor jobless and homeless. There was economic uncertainty as investments and new jobs came in trickles. This was true in Ormoc City, in the province of Leyte and throughout the country.
Initial activities
Hence, it was only logical for concerned citizens to take action. Experienced in working with another NGO in 1986, the founders of PFI sat down to formulate its guiding tenets and programs. Being residents of Ormoc City, their initial project was helping the small market vendors in the city.
With limited funds drawn from their own meager savings, the founders started a credit program among the vendors, hoping to do away with the pernicious 5-6 system that kept them in perpetual debt peonage with unscrupulous money lenders.
First donor
After some months, additional fund assistance came from the PFI's first donor, the Philippine-German Development Foundation (Philgerfund). That was just the start. The project would be followed with more projects, but this time, involving other sectors besides the urban poor. Peasant organizing was started in 1991 in seven barrios here.
Women groups were organized here, in Isabel, Leyte and in the province of Biliran in the next year. This was followed by fisherfolks organizing in 1992 and 1993. This was also the time when PFI acquired a small agricultural land in the upland portions of Ormoc, which it is making into a demonstration farm for sustainable upland farming.
Fisheries Protection
Then in 1994 , PFI started a fisheries protection project in Almeria, Biliran, to be followed two years later by a similar project in Culaba, also of Biliran. The intervention in Culaba was not the last of PFI's activities. It was later followed by small health self-help projects in other parts of Biliran province supported by the Department of Health under the Partnership for Community Health Development.
The accomplishments of the Foundation may be partially measured by the number of organizations established through the years and the assistance given.
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