Andresa G. Cortes, married and 45 years old was born and raised in Barangay Maya-maya, Tambulig Zamboanga del Sur. She is a mother to two kids and married to Edgar Cortes, a farmer and a Barangay Councilor at the same time. She is also currently on her third term as the Barangay Chairman of Maya-maya.

Being born and raised in the farthest barangay of the Municipality of Tambulig specifically Barangay Maya-maya, where farming is the major source of livelihood, she shared with the struggles of her people. Having limited resources and lack of access to economic opportunities. They may have the area- wide farmlands but were not fully utilized due to lack of resources to finance farming activities. Ironically, majority of the people are farmers but most households buy rice or corn from the market.

In 2010, KapitanaAndresa became one of the Pantawid beneficiaries in the Barangay. Being an active member of the community, the people see a leadership potential in her. She got elected as Barangay Chairman in 2013.

In 2014, the Sustainable Livelihood Program was introduced to them during one of their Family development Session. Knowing the struggles of the farmers in the barangay, she thought the program will be a very great help for them. She urged her co-Pantawid beneficiaries to avail the program and ensured full support for them. They formed into an association and was named Maya-maya SLP Association and elected Ms. Vivian Mocoy as President.

The Maya-maya SLP Association received the seed capital fund worth Php 400,000.00 in 2016. But because the association is still in disbelief of the grant received and was partly hesitant to utilize the grant because of the fear that they may end up bankrupt, they were unable to open their enterprise.

Until 2018, with assistance from then implementing PDO and continuous support from KapitanaAndresa, the association finally braved to start the operation of their enterprise. They engaged into Buy and Sell of Chicken Dungs and Agri-Supply.  The association decided to adapt an order-based policy. Items are purchased according to the list of orders. With the support and initiative of KapitanaAndresa, an LGU vehicle is requested to deliver the items purchased and the association will only pay for the gas. In this way, the SLPA were able to save the transportation expenses.

Also because of the savings from transportation expenses, the association does not have to add more costs to the SRP of the items. That means the customers can avail them at almost if not same with the competitive market price. And this means a BIG HELP to the farmers in the Barangay.

Before the operation of the Maya-maya SLP Association, the farmers of the barangay have very limited farm produced because of the limited resources to finance their farming activities. Not to mention the difficulty of the mode of transportation being the farthest barangay in the Municipality. In this reason, the farmers are ironically always running short of produced that they have to buy their own rice/corn for their families’ consumption.

But after the SLPA started its operation, the farmers are able to have access to credit at a very minimal interest rate of only 2% monthly. KapitanaAndresa is proud to say that the farmers of Barangay Maya-maya are now able to provide for their families’ needs because they are able maximize production of farm produced.

“Daghang Salamat sa DSWD ug sa SLP nganapiliamuang barangay nga matagaan ug capital kay dako kaayo kini nga tabang sa katawhan ilabina sa amuang mga mang-uuma.” Kapitana Andresa said.