DAVAO CITY- For 6 long years, Juana Dela Cruz, not her real name, has been appealing for the payment of the interest and return of the share capital of her deceased brother who has been a member and officer of a cooperative in Davao Oriental. But despite her family’s constant appeal, no agreement was reached.
But on March 5 and 13, 2024 respectively, two successful notarized settlement agreements from two cooperatives in Davao Oriental amounting to millions of pesos for the return of share capital and payment of interest was accomplished through the “Dialogue Proceedings” of the CDA Omnibus Rules of Procedures.
Based on Rule III of the CDA Omnibus Rules of Procedures, the CDA Dialogue is an informal, non-litigious/non-adversarial, inexpensive, confidential and expeditious settlement of a dispute or conflict. The parties are allowed to fully ventilate their respective positions without regard to extreme legal technicalities and with a broader latitude of possible approaches to resolving the problem.
The conduct of a dialogue is initiated by a party other than the Authority; the requesting party must fill out the “Dialogue Request Form” provided for in the Regional Office. The requesting party must attach to the form a complaint with the Certificate of Non-Settlement from the cooperative’s Conciliation-Mediation Committee as required under Article 137 of R.A. 9520, or in case of failure of the requesting party to obtain a Certificate of Non-Settlement, he/she must secure a notarized affidavit of settlement stating that there was no settlement reached from the Conciliation-Mediation Proceedings of the primary cooperative or federation/union as the case may be.
Juana Dela Cruz and her family already received a partial amount of the multi-million settlement agreement.
The successful and historic dialogue proceeding was facilitated by the CDA Davao Legal Unit headed by Atty. Earl D.F. Larroder, Legal Officer together with Mr. Paul Ryan R. Simbajon, Cooperative Development Specialist II/Designated Legal Assistant.
“ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) works, this is the goal of a dialogue; to avoid protracted litigation and attain justice in the most equitable way possible for both parties” said Atty. Larroder during the signing of the successful settlement agreement.
