DV Boer Farms International Corp. said its paiwi program is now back in business after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lifted the advisory against the program.
This after the commercial farm group committed to pay P3.01 million in penalty in tranches, and to first clear with the SEC any future transactions under its paiwi program through the submission of mandatory registration statements, documents from the SEC showed.
Paiwi is a widely-accepted Filipino backyard farming practice where a person who owns livestock — pig, chicken, goat, cattle — hires a neighbor or close associate to grow and nurture it until such time that it is ready to be sold, milked for its egg/offspring or slaughtered for its meat.
DV Boer said it offered the unique paiwi business program to help traditional poultry farms and livestock growers to earn more and develop their farms into efficient, profit-oriented ventures.
“Aside from helping them earn more and produce more, DV Boer also educates them on how to run the business properly by providing new technology and best practices,” the company said in a statement.
The SEC however issued an advisory against the program in April last year, arguing that the program is a kind of investment or securities that requires secondary license from the agency and should first be registered with the SEC prior to being offered to the public.
The SEC argued that DV Boer’s paiwi program “constitutes securities in the form of investment contract.”
DV Boer said it was hard pressed to come up with the funds needed to keep the business going since the advisory took effect.
As a result of the advisory, DV Boer’s bank accounts were closed.
“And the banks did not accept new accounts in the name of the company, naturally, their operations were greatly affected with these developments. This was aggravated more when
Taal volcano erupted early January. Most of their partner farms located in Batangas cannot collect free forage around the area due to ash fall,” it said.
DV Boer said it has now settled the issue without any determination of guilt or fault on its part, as was declared by the SEC in its order.
““This will exonerate DV Boer in the eyes of our partners, investors, believers, supporters and the general public because no less than the SEC, the government agency tasked to oversee big businesses, has already cleared us without any exceptions,” the company said.
“Our paiwi program was designed to genuinely help boost Philippine agriculture thru organized livestock raising,” said Dex Villamin, founder and president of DV Boer which was established in 2014.
“With this great development, we can now start the cleansing process of our once proud brand that would lead to the recovery of our business for all our employees, stakeholders and communities,” added Villamin.
