MANILA, Philippines—Business cooperatives have been told to re-asses their strategies in the coming years largely due to the effect of global warming here, as seen in the devastation caused by tropical storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng.”

Speaking during the cooperative conference at the Makati University last October 28 entitled “Strategic Direction Towards a Shared Vision,” World Wildlife Fund Chief Executive Officer Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan said that global warming has become a “reality” for all entrepreneurs.

“Most coastal towns and cities will be affected. Migrations will be rampant. Supply chains will change. And co-ops must supply these chains if they are to stay in business,” Tan said.

He cited that global warming could affect sea-levels and would alter the country’s coastline.

Because of this, Tan said that global warming has become a “degenerative disease” that would come “slowly” and urged cooperatives to prepare.

Despite the change expected due to global warming, experts said that things were looking better for cooperatives in 2010.

At the same time, experts also predicted that the country’s economy would grow by 2.13 percent in 2010 and exports would also recover.

The upcoming 2010 elections, in particular, will increase economic activity, said University of the Philippines economic professor Cayetao Paderanga.

Paderanga said that personal and government consumption would make up for weak exports.

Consumer-type businesses would also expect a boom because of the country’s strong consumerist culture, he said.

Attorney Niel Santillan, executive director of the Cooperative Development Authority, said newly-registered cooperatives in 2008 numbered to 1,951. Of this number, 54 percent were multi-purpose non-agricultural type cooperatives, 35 percent were multi-purpose agricultural cooperatives, and 3.94 percent were credit cooperatives.

Santillan said that from the newly registered cooperatives in 2008, the paid-up capital amounted to P167 million.

Romulo Villamin, former chief executive officer of the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) and main organizer of the conference, said, “This conference is the first step of a one-year process that will engage cooperatives throughout the country and at all levels – primary, secondary, national co-op organizations – in a critical analysis, in identifying challenges and opportunities, and in developing a platform for common action.”

“We chose a power cast of speakers who are recognized in their fields. They gave us the current situation of the Philippines and what to expect in the next five years or so. The cooperative sector will then come up with a unified strategy the meet challenges, exploit opportunities, and avoid pitfalls,” he said.

Aside from Tan, Paderanga, and Santillan, other guest speakers were:

• Benjamin Dy, lecturer at the University of Asia and the Pacific’s School of Management, who spoke on how cooperatives could market their services, and gave steps leaders could take to their respective cooperatives through the path of entrepreneurship.

• Antonio Garmaitan, political analyst and Liberal Party vice-president, who provided participants with the political situation in the country, gave the audience the chances of the leading presidential candidates in winning the 2010 polls, and assessed the influence exerted by factors like religious groups and issues. “The country needs a leader – not a politician, not an administrator,” he said. He also predicted the political battle will be done “on the ground and in the airwaves as well.”

• Doctor Melba Maggay who proposed that “spirituality and culture are a resource that cooperatives must tap.” “Even profit-oriented corporations have begun to recognize this. And co-ops must realize this as well,” she said, adding, “Values are good, but they also need spirituality.”

• Doctor Bien Nito, University of Asia & Pacific professor and director of the Social Enterprise Institute Center for Research and Communication, who will draft the conference synthesis.

More than 200 cooperative leaders, staff and government workers attended the conference by the Co-op Education Forum, composed of national, regional and unions of cooperatives, government agencies, and universities involved in cooperative education. It was held in line with the 2009 Cooperative Month and sought to unite the cooperative sector to build a comprehensive education and training system for cooperatives in the Philippines.