(Conduct of RCOs of Cooperatives General Assembly and Election of Officers)
By Niño Rosil C. Bantayan, CDS II

Cooperative Development Authority – Caraga facilitated the conduct of Regional Clustered Organizations’ General Assembly and Election of Officers of the six (6) cooperative clusters, namely: (a) Human Services Cluster: Health, Housing, Workers, and Labor Service; (b) Public Utilities Cluster: Electricity, Water, Communications, and Transport; (c) Credit and Financial Services, Banking, and Insurance Cluster; (d) Consumers, Marketing, Producers, and Logistics (CMPL Cluster); (e) Agriculture Cluster, Agrarian, Aquaculture, Farmers, Dairy, and Fisherfolk; (f) Education Cluster which includes Advocacy, and Unions. In a series of meetings starting April 30, then May 7, May 14, May 20, May 21 of this year, respectively, the General Assemblies and Elections were hosted virtually by the CDA-Caraga Regional Office via Zoom platform. The physical venue is the Conference room of the regional office where the guests from the Central Office were actually accommodated.

In attendance were the national cluster heads from the CDA Headquarters, for Human Services- Asec. Myrla B. Paradillo, for Public Utilities – Asec. Abad L. Santos, for Credit and Financial Services – Asec. Vidal Villanueva III, for CMPL – Asec. Pendatun B. Disimban, for Agriculture – Asec. Virgilio R. Lazaga, and for the Education and Advocacy -it was attended by Asec. Abdulsalam A. Guinomla. The over-all presider as Host Region was Regional Director of CDA-Caraga, Genaro D. Pogata Jr.  and the presence of the new CDA Chairman, Joseph “Joy” B. Encabo in all of the meetings was seen to it by, either, his representative or his virtual attendance.

In summary, a total of Two Hundred Fifty-Nine (259) participating coops attended the activity and distributed as follows: 87 coops for the Financial Cluster, 119 – for CMPL Cluster, 19 for Public Utilities, 2 coops for the Human Services Cluster, and also 2 coops for the Education and Advocacy Cluster, and 30 coops for the Agriculture Cluster.

The organization of Regional Clustered Organizations (RCO) is mandated by RA 11364, otherwise known as the “Cooperative Development Authority Charter of 2019” which was signed into law by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte last August 08, 2019 and took effect on August 29, 2019. Purposely, it repealed RA 6939, to strengthen and reorganize the Cooperative Development Authority (The Authority) to carry out the provisions of the Act and those of Republic Act No. 6938, as amended by Republic Act No. 9520, otherwise known as the “Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008”. According to the statement of the Honorable Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri the change from the old to this new charter is a….” respond to the clamor of the cooperative sector, to make the Cooperative Development Authority more responsive to the needs of the sector and further promote cooperativism as an effective tool in achieving inclusive growth”.

In application, the purpose of the organization and recognition of regional clustered cooperatives for their representation to the sectoral apex organization and the national alliance is to give opportunities to all types of cooperatives in the overall consultative and coordinating body with the Authority.

Whether they be micro, small, medium or large…they must be represented as one cooperative movement during consultations.

As what Usec. Encabo said, “Let us be one in our vision, mission and action and continuously embrace the principles of cooperativism as we promote the importance of economic sustainability, social justice and giving recognition to our contribution to nation building. I look forward to meeting and collaborating with all of you. I wish you all the best…”

Truly the success of the cooperative movement is shared by CDA and everyone!

Table 1. Human Services: Health, Housing, Workers, and Labor Service Newly Elected Officers

Table 2. Public Utilities: Electricity, Water, Communications, and Transport Newly Elected Officers

Table 3. Credit and Financial Services, Banking, and Insurance Newly Elected Officers

Table 4. Consumers, Marketing, Producers, and Logistics Newly Elected Officers

Table 5. Agriculture, Agrarian, Aquaculture, Farmers, Dairy, and Fisherfolk Newly Elected Officers

Table 6. Education and Advocacy Newly Elected Officers