CO-OP Buzz

Clark, Pampanga – The 43rd annual convention of VICTO National, one of the country’s leading secondary cooperatives came to a close yesterday with interesting developments that had the community abuzz over the reunification of two major forces in the Co-op sector.

The two-day event was held at the Stotsenberg Hotel in Clark in the middle of the Special Economic Zone that straddles the cities of Angeles and San Fernando. Last year, I had the opportunity to grace VICTO’s General Assembly at the Radisson Blu Hotel and judging from their choice of venues, the cooperative sector does not scrimp when it comes to high level meetings.

My pass to the event is my capacity as anchor of the book project, “A Story Worth Telling (Stories of Hope),” a highlight of the federation’s participation in the worldwide celebration of the International Year of the Co-op.

The United Nations has declared 2012 as IYC, an occasion that the worldwide cooperative movement is seizing to demonstrate the amazing power of Co-ops in improving people’s lives and building communities. The idea is to use the celebration to break through all barriers and sectors to bring the message that the Co-op has evolved from community-based enterprises to an economic model that could change the world.  Mainstreaming the success of co-ops in practically all fields of human endeavour is a challenge because most often, Co-op leaders preach to the choir, that is, to those who are already enrolled in the movement.

Last year, the International Cooperative Alliance based in Japan came up with a global search for Co-ops with best practices.  VICTO nominated Escalante Public and Private School Teachers and Employees Cooperative (EPSTEMPCO) and the Ictus Premier Cooperative in Surallah, South Cotabato.  The results are due in May next year, but the ICA program caught the eye of VICTO chief executive officer Mercedes “Ched” Castillo who adopted the concept to energize the sector’s activities in the run up to its jubilee in 2020.    This is the overview of the book project that was launched at the end of the two-day event in Clark, which was attended by some 668 delegates representing the federation’s 227 affiliates all over the country.  Some 11 new affiliates were added to that list yesterday.

I expected a predictable weekend but during a meeting of VICTO National’s board of national directors and officers, the matter of reuniting VICTO and Coop Nattco was raised.  Coop Nattco is also a secondary cooperative and although it is separate from the political party list Coop Nattco, it is nevertheless identified with political party listers, in particular Congressman Cresente Paez, who used to be an advocate of VICTO.  I will not go into the nitty gritty of their rift which happened sometime in 2005, suffice it to say that trust issues are at the core of the two Co-op’s conflict and reunification may be easier said than done.

According to well-informed sources, it was in April this year that Congressman Paez approached an influential Co-op leader in Cebu for help in bringing reconciliation between VICTO National and Coop Nattco.  The report immediately triggered speculations that the move might be politically motivated because VICTO has expressed support for another Co-op oriented party list group.  This is very interesting because Coop Nattco will woo supporters to bring back its number one nominee, Congressman Paez to Congress in next year’s mid-term elections.  How true are reports that incumbent party-list Congressman Jose Ping-ay, Coop Nattco’s second nominee failed to make it as a nominee of the party list group?

On the last day of the Co-op convention, Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) national executive director Orlando Ravanera delivered the keynote address that had co-operators sitting up in attention.  The CDA executive disclosed that the agency among   other government offices under the Executive is readying plans to deliver support services for the farmers of Hacienda Luisita.  The tenant tillers are expecting the ownership transfer of the vast sugar plantation formerly owned by the Cojuangco clan.

According to Ravanera, agrarian reform beneficiaries association or ARBAs have agreed to convert their groups into cooperatives, a scenario that is expected to energize and mobilize the countryside because ARBAs count for more than 4 million people.  If this is the fruit of the IYC, I can only say the Co-op sector will experience a “population explosion” overnight.

Levity aside, Ravanera’s pronouncements belie reports that President Benigno Aquino III is against the ruling of the Supreme Court on Hacienda Luisita.  If anything, this suggests that PNoy has embraced the decision and will not squander the opportunity to bring about social justice to the farmers.