From FAs to ACs, to uplift people’s lives
The administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is committed to facilitating the transformation of Farmers’ Associations (FAs) into legally recognized cooperatives by virtue of Presidential Directive No. PBBM-2023-355 to bolster the agricultural sector, including Irrigators and Fisherfolk Associations. Consolidating small-scale, dispersed farming, boosting livelihoods, guaranteeing food security, and expanding access to government assistance, financing, and marketing are the main goals of this program.
As the primary agency to implement this directive, the Department of Agriculture (DA)-CAR has gathered the representatives of over 100 Farmer Associations (FAs) in Benguet on February 5, 2026 at the PLC Hall, Wangal, La Trinidad, Benguet. The event was mainly to orient these FAs with the CDA Charter (RA 11364) as well as the Cooperative Code of the Philippines (RA 9520) and to prepare them to become a recognized Agriculture Cooperatives (ACs) as emphasized in the Presidential Directive.
The CDA-CAR Benguet Field Office, as the key speaker emphasized the CDA’s mandate strengthened under the RA 11364 as: (a) Developmental; (b) Registration and Regulation; and (c) Quasi-Judicial to foster economic and social development among cooperatives. With the strengthened mandates, the CDA is tasked with promoting the viability of cooperatives through training, registration, supervision, and, in some cases, intervention to protect member interests.
On the other hand, the RA 9520 provides the unique and different philosophy of cooperative operations designed to serve the needs and interests of its members and the community, which could be a tool for human development. Hence, farmers could strategically benefit from it through democratic participation, mutual support and shared responsibility. Through cooperative, farmers engage themselves in pooling resources together, producing with quality and efficiency and reaching wider markets, to help uplift their individual lives.
Complying with the registration procedures and requirements will jumpstart the operation of a cooperative starting with a Pre-Registration Seminar (PRS) as set by the Code. These procedures and requirements were detailed to the participants drawing interest and commitment among them.
A cooperative is a self-governing, voluntary group of people who come together to fulfill shared economic, social, and cultural needs and goals by means of a collectively owned and democratically managed enterprise. As an anonymous has quoted, “Cooperative is not the only way to improve people’s lives; it is the best way!”//Christine Lopez Bulalin
