Board invites CFI coop to air side on plaints, ‘demolition job’

THE Cebu Provincial Board (PB) yesterday agreed to invite officials of the Cebu CFI Community Cooperative Inc. in next week’s session to explain its side in complaints about the coop’s “alleged oppressive practices” affecting provincial government employees.

The move was trigged by the CFI’s full-page advertisement in local dailies which said “a prominent Cebuano politician” was behind a “vicious smear campaign” against the coop.

It also said an unnamed “high ranking Cebu Provincial Official – definitely not the Governor –- has taken over the demolition job”.

During yesterday’s session, Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale said she feels alluded to in the ad.

“I even think that it involved me indirectly,” said Magpale.

The coop’s board of directors and officers including its founder retired Judge Esperanza Garcia, will be asked to shed light on the province’s 1987 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the coop.

PB Member Grecilda Sanchez, sponsor of the resolution, said there was never any mention to revoke the MOA and its terms of agreement.

“There is probably a misconception on their part because there was never a dialog that is face to face so we found it proper to have one,” she told Cebu Daily News.

“A COA mandate states that government employees should always have take home pay. This is just a matter of discussion, there was no mention of rescinding the contract,” she added.

Sanchez said they are also studying the possibility of allowing other coops to operate in the Capitol and enjoy the same concessions as CFI, such as automatic payroll deductions on the loans of its members.

The resolution said the PB is reviewing the MOA due to “complaints of excessive interest and penalty charges, alleged oppressive practice of confiscating the employees’ ATM cards which result in zero net take-home pay,”

Collecting arm

Yesterday PB Member Raul Alcoseba described the Cebu provincial government’s ties with the coop as “disadvantageous.”

He said the Capitol has become the coop’s collection arm under its special payroll arrangement with CFI.

“The province is obligated to make a separate payroll for the coop. This is an additional operating cost for us,” Alcoseba said.

Two weeks ago, the PB asked the opinion of provincial legal officer Orvi Ortega on the MOA with the coop which is closely identified with the Garcias.

Since MOAs are bilateral in nature, both parties can “reform, rescind and terminate” its terms, Ortega said.

He also said the PB “can issue another resolution terminating the MOA” and that the document did not specify any period for its effectivity.

But Pablo Garcia, former congressman and Cebu governor, said the MOA can’t be revoked without the coop’s consent or going to court.

Under the 1987 MOA, signed during the term of governor Osmundo Rama, the credit coop is assured of prompt payment of all employee loans.

The credit cooperative was authorized to pay the salary of employees subject to reimbursement by the provincial government.