COOP-NATCCO Partylist Representative Felimon Espares (House of Representatives)
Felimon Espares, an educator and the voice of cooperatives nationwide, brings to the 19th Congress his 31 years of cooperative movement experience as COOP-NATCCO Partylist representative.
The National Confederation of Cooperative (NATCCO) Network was established by five cooperative federations “to standardize the training of coop officers” in 1977. According to its website, it has over 800 cooperative members offering financial intermediation, stabilization fund, and education services.
In 1997, leaders of the network formed COOP-NATCCO Partylist in Cauayan, Isabela. The following year, the group sought a seat in Congress, intending to ensure laws that would benefit cooperatives in the country.
The group trains co-ops to improve their services to the community. In 2018, the NATCCO Network conducted 178 seminars and trained over 5,000 cooperators from 910 cooperatives. It also offers consultation in various fields such as credit, financial, and human resource management, as well as marketing and sales, among others.
Espares earned a degree in Education, majoring in Mathematics at the University of Antique in 1988, and became a classroom teacher at Saint Anthony’s High School in 1992.
As a cooperative leader, Espares was Antique Federation Cooperatives’ community organizer. He currently serves as the chief executive officer of the Barbaza Multi-purpose Cooperative.
Based on the COOP-NATCCO Partylist website, the representative received the Youngest Coop Manager award from the Visayas Cooperative Development Center (VICTO) in 2000 and the Coop Excellence Award from the Barbaza Multi-purpose Cooperative in 2015.
In 2007, he was recognized as an outstanding alumnus by his alma mater. In 2012, he was cited as the Regional Outstanding Coop Leader by the Cooperative Development Authority.
According to the House of Representatives website, Espares was one of the principal authors of House Bill (HB) 1333, which amends the Cooperative Code of 2008, “prohibiting all retired and active military and police personnel or officers from being appointed in positions of secretary, undersecretary, head or member of governing bodies of government-owned corporations and agencies.”
He is also one of the principal authors of HB 1880, or the Revised Charter of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), which will “prescribe more powers, activities, and increased capitalization for the PCIC;” and HB 1329, which shall be known as the Cooperative Banking Act, among others.