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 11^th 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