AVANT GARDENER
A lot of farms in the Philippines are made up of small plots of land, which is why the government encourages the formation of cooperatives, to take advantage of economies of scale.
The Philippine Chamber of Cooperatives was created to further increase the opportunities that cooperatives afford its members. “The Philippine Chamber of Cooperatives (Coop Chamber) was created to have more focus [on] cooperative development, especially related to advocacy,” said Coop Chamber President Noel Dalang Raboy, a member of CLIMBS Life and General Insurance Cooperative, who sat down for the interview alongside Coop Chamber Executive Director Edwin Phi Bustillos.
“We don’t have that advocacy group that’s really the voice of the cooperative movement, especially for the rural areas… so it’s so timely that the Philippine Chamber of Coops were able to set up our 16 regional presence,” Raboy added. “We intend to register it to the Securities and Exchange Commission because we want to [be] more liberal in terms of our approach on how we support our cooperative movement.”
Cooperatives are very important in the agriculture industry as they allow small farmers the opportunity to group together for better market leverage. The Coop Chamber hopes to use this principle to unite all the coops in the country with the possibility of advocating for the sector in the legislative arena.
“We really need the support of the agricultural sector and the support of foreign investors in our agri but there are some issues and concerns that no one [talks about]... of that is when you talk about agricultural cooperatives on the ownership of the product of the land is very limited, only to five hectares per farmer. So, so how we can support that?” Raboy said in Taglish.
“We want to cooperate [with] the agricultural sector… but to be attractive [to] government support, there’s really a need for the amendments on [Republic Act] 9520 that is the Cooperative Development Authority of the Philippines.
“So our advocacy is supporting the government [so] that it can be… open. We allow foreign investors or cooperatives to give capital… to coops, but we advise that since the government wants to use the 40 percent ownership of foreigners, we’re concerned about the voting because their voting is share voting.”
The organization advocates for the one coop one vote system. “In the concept of one coop one vote, this is the principle that no matter how big your capital, it should be one vote per organization so nobody can monopolize the decisions and there’s democratic control,” Raboy said.
“But there’s a substitute bill that wants them to act like corporations, which is a violation of the cooperative principle. Because if it becomes law, it could become a loophole for big businesses to put up their own cooperatives, invest in them, and gain tax exemptions… They aren’t true cooperatives… We want to maintain the structure that, no matter how big a cooperative is, it just has one vote.”
Cooperatives are important and they are underutilized in the Philippine context. “Cooperatives are owned by ordinary people. It’s the chance of ordinary Filipinos to own a bank, insurance, [or] an enterprise with the intention of supporting their membership,” Raboy said.
Members can also borrow money at lower interest rates. “For small and medium enterprises, this is what drives our economy. We want to [encourage] coop members to become entrepreneurs to uplift their [standard of living]... It can also help the government in terms of economic activity and taxation [as] most of the biggest cooperatives are credit cooperatives.”
That said, Filipinos are famous for not getting along. Raboy offered tips on fostering a harmonious relationship within a cooperative. “The key is education. [It’s] one of seven components of the principles of a cooperative [alongside] training and information… [Potential members] have to be educated on what a real coop is. What is the intention of the coop? Why should I join?”
He added that the Coop Chamber wants to correct the impression that one should put up a cooperative simply because there are funds available without the proper education on what a cooperative is and what values and principles it should hold for its members.
The Coop Chamber has a long list of items to tackle, but its members, who come from all over the Philippines, are up for the task. “We plan to include cooperatives in policy making. We want to show people that cooperatives are able to help,” Raboy said.
Cooperatives who want to join the Coop Chamber can contact them through their website, http://coopchamberph.org/.