Stability
& Strength better than size,
says
Santiaguel
Cagayan De Oro City – Size doesn’t
matter, according to Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) Chairman, Dr.
Emmanuel Santiaguel. He has reiterated
that it is better to have less – but stronger and more viable cooperatives.
Speaking at the 11th
Cooperative Summit attended by more than 3,000 cooperators from all over the
country held at the Atrium of the Lim
Ket Kai Center, he revealed that there are currently 22,133 cooperatives
registered with the CDA.
He reported, however, that: “The
rate of increase significantly dropped compared to previous years. This is primarily because the sector has
become open and accepted the coop branching that we are painstakingly propagating. Your agency has issued a total of 134
Certificate of Authority and Recognition to coop branches and satellite offices
nationwide.”
The CDA is the sole government
regulatory agency of cooperatives.
While the number of registered
cooperatives increased, he deplored that the performance has dipped: “The coop
sector has generated a total of an estimated Php160,986,472,748 volume of
business as compared to Php280,865,210,840 accomplishment last 2011, roughly
57.32% of our accomplishment last year.”
“Almost 76% of our total coops are
classified as Micro Scale, with assets less than Php3 Million. 16% belong to Small Scale, Medium Scale is
only 6.74% and an insignificant 1.62% or roughly 334 registered coops belong to
Large Scale. But please note, that the
insignificant combined numbers of Large and Medium Scale Coops contributed a
total of Php122,775,397,027 volume of business and total Assets of
Php108,637,570,716,” he said.
Santiaguel interprets this as
meaning that majority of co-ops are “prone to financial difficulties, with
little or no capacity to expand and meet the demands of their clientele, with
assets of not more than P 3 Million.
He also made it clear that he is not
interested in numbers but rather stability and viability of cooperatives. He explained: “It is for this reason that the CDA espouses
the merger and amalgamation of cooperatives, to strengthen the Micro and Small
Scale coops. And eventually, make weak
coops feel the importance of joining
stable cooperatives, and in their stead, the rebirth of one big strong coop or
their conversion to branches owned and managed by big coops.”
Also, instead of organizing new
cooperative that will take many years to grow and nurture, Santiaguel has a
better alternative in mind: “I believe we can reach more Fililipinos and
encourage them to join existing cooperatives, without resorting to registering
new ones. In the proposed structure, the
number of registered cooperatives is hoped to be downsized to a manageable
number of 10,000 strong and robust cooperatives as a result of branching and
merging activities and still achieve our target of 20 million co-op members.”
Source: The Philippine Coop Sector
published by the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO Network)
September-December 2012 Issue
