Bank run or not, the imbroglio engulfing the G7 Bank deserves a more serious attention not only from among those in the banking community, but also from those in the social, political , educational and even religious sectors. No amount of propaganda—subtle or crude, can belie the fact that the bank’s present woes are real and affect those in the upper and middle economic classes of the region.

        Starting as a ragtag financial institution inherited from an establishment that was about to face the same fate as many other rural banks that eventually fell into the waiting laps of bank liquidators, the then Rural Bank of Nabua, Inc., not only rose from eventual bankruptcy, but emerged as the region’s most robust banking institution, overshadowing local branches of financial entities operating nationwide.

        G7’s growth had been so phenomenal which almost created an impression that it is being managed by financial wizards, given its very rapid expansion left and right that saw other ailing rural banks being gobbled. In time, G7 succeeded in creating a public image of indestructibility. A very solid financial base.

        No wonder then that it attracted a mixture of big and small depositors, the total of which runs to more than twenty thousand. Such success may be partly attributed to the very high interest rates offered on savings deposits. Time deposits particularly. The promotion must have been so luring to the extent that—if the talks circulating are to be believed, leaders in the different sectors of the community, instead of investing their large money into more productive endeavors like food production in order to generate employment opportunities, have opted to let their millions of pesos work for themselves while they live in comfort and luxury, courtesy of the huge interests offered by the bank.

        It is this angle that deserves a more thorough thought. How come that the moneyed people have become so socially indifferent? Instead of funneling their money to more productive though adventurous endeavors like food production, they have chosen to take the safer course— depositing it with the bank and be contented with the interest it generates. They have practically abandoned their moral and social responsibility of helping provide a source of living to the less fortunate, not for free but by way of employment opportunities. Indeed, greed must really be hard to moderate.

        Meantime, loan sharks have become much bolder. Even the so-called five-six (Bombay) loan scheme has become so popular to such an extent that many small scale entrepreneurs, fish and meat vendors and sari sari store owners have become easy prey of this very usurious and unconscionable practice. And, as the Anti Usury Law remains either to be in coma or in deep slumber, other moneyed people have invested their funds into the underground money market, via the so called rediscounting scheme—apparently with some degree of covert participation by a few who are well connected with bankers.

        All these take place as we witness the inevitable collapse of the agricultural sector, the very backbone of the region’s economy. Prices of farm inputs—seeds, fuel, weed killers, pesticide and fertilizer, have gone beyond the reach of the farmers whose number is rapidly decreasing. Some, masquerading themselves to be offering a helping hand, lend the poor farmers a meager capital , but with a very high interest rate, that almost foretells the man with the hoe’s endless bondage to the soil. When harvest time comes, the middlemen dictate the price of the produce. Nothing is left to the farmer’s family, except the dust and the ever dwindling hope for a better life. The peace and order condition in the countryside is also far from ideal.

        The food production sector urgently needs more attention not only from the government but also from those who, instead of investing their huge amount of money into productive ventures that would lead to a better standard of living not for themselves alone but for the entire community as well, allow themselves to be lured by assurances of high rates via bank deposits which have proven very risky anyway.

        Moneyed people who let their wealth stay secure in the banks instead of venturing into entrepreneurship should now realize that even bank vaults have quick sands and two- legged cockroaches, the presence of which is cleverly kept out of public view. The predicament confronting them now regarding their frozen deposits in huge amounts serves them right.