Agrarian coops to get more support

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) have forged an agreement to provide more support for agrarian reform beneficiaries’ (ARB) cooperatives nationwide.

The program aims to provide strengthening and capability building trainings for members and officers of some 1,600 ARB cooperatives, re-registration and assistance for the renewal of the status as cooperatives in good standing of these cooperatives.  

This will provide ARB cooperatives with the trainings required under R.A. 9520 (Cooperative Code of 2008) for officers and members of cooperatives. It will also strengthen farmers’ cooperative as instruments of equity, social justice and economic development as expressed the in Philippine Constitution.

The DAR and CDA will also assist new farmers’ cooperatives in the preparation of the documents needed for registration and will help them improve their operations and preserve and build up their capital.

The agreement between DAR and CDA was earlier disclosed in Cagayan De Oro City during the 2012 National Cooperative Summit wherein DAR has committed to provide funding for trainings for ARB cooperatives to be primarily implemented by the CDA. It is also a part of the agreements reached during such summit, that is, to mainstream the farmer-beneficiary cooperatives into the cooperative movement. /cds

Philippine Cooperative Sector: Some vital stats

CDA Chairman Dr. Emmanuel Santiaguel, PhD delivering the State of the Cooperatives Address (SOCA).

1.    There are 11.7 million Filipinos who are members of cooperatives, or about 10% of the population as of September 30, 2012; 

2.    There are 22,133 registered cooperatives  at present, the rate of increase had dropped compared to previous years because of cooperatives branching out  instead of new cooperatives being registered. The Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) issued 134 Certificates of Authority and Recognition to coop branches and satellite offices nationwide;

      3.    An estimated P160,986,472,748 volume of business was generated by the cooperative sector;

      4.    Almost 76% of cooperatives  are classified as Micro Scale, with assets of not more than three (3) million pesos and 16.16% are classified as Small Scale;

      5.    Only 6.74% of the cooperatives belong to the Medium Scale;

      6.    About 334 (1.62%)registered cooperatives belong to the Large Scale;

      

      7.    The combined Large Scale and Medium Scale cooperatives contributed a total of P122,775,397,027 volume of business and total assets of P108,637,570,716. This means that majority of the cooperatives are those that have assets of not more than three (3) million, prone to financial difficulties and with little or no capacity to expand to meet the needs of the their members-clients;

 8.    More than 65% of registered cooperative are multi-purpose;

 9.    About 11.23% are engaged in credit and lending;

     10.  More than 5% are service and producer cooperatives;

      11.  There are 4.96% consumer cooperatives;

     
      12.  There are 3.59% marketing cooperatives and the rest represent 1% of the total;

13.  In 2011, the cooperative sector generated 141,260 indirect and 201,225 direct employments;

      14.  As of July 2012, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) have 100% active Regional CDC, 63% from Provincial Council, City Council with 80.1% and Municipal with only 38.91% Council who are actively participating with our cooperative development programs;

      15.   The CDA has received only a total of 11,944 CAPRs and only 11, 692 coops submitted Audited Financial Statements. (49% of the cooperatives has yet to submit these reports);

     16.   As of September 2012 the CDA has only 5,191 approved ACBL amendments out of 8,023 applications received; 

     17.   The cooperative sector has available services of only 831 total accredited individual CPAs and 87 firms nationwide that will handle the audit of the financial statements of the cooperatives; and

      18.   The amendment of CDA Charter and the mandatory creation of the Cooperative Development Office in the Local Government Units is still being scrutinized and deliberated upon on its 3rd and final reading in congress. 

Source: State of the Cooperative Address (2012 National Cooperative Summit)  /cds

Iguig ARB Coop receives Php1M loan from Land Bank

The Eastern Iguig Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Eastern Iguig MPC) received a one million peso (Php1,000,000.00) loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines through the Credit Assistance Program for Program Beneficiaries Development (CAP-PBD) of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for relending purposes to members of the cooperative. A symbolic one-million peso check was awarded by DAR ASEC Jose G. Grajeda on October 4, 2012 during the turn-over ceremony at barangay Sta. Barbara, Iguig, Cagayan.

Farmer-beneficiary members of Eastern Iguig MPC receiving the Php1million loan. 

The Credit Assistance Program for Program Beneficiaries Development (CAP-PBD) was conceptualized to provide credit support to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries' organizations who cannot yet qualify under the accreditation criteria of government and private financing institutions. The said credit support aims to serve as a venue to develop the ARB organizations' entrepreneurial competence and credit worthiness, leading to their qualification to avail of the different credit windows of financial institutions.

Land Bank and DAR staff.

Each of the thirty-one (31) farmer-beneficiary member of the cooperative can avail P25,000 per hectare for rice production with an interest of two percent (2%) per month payable within one hundred eighty (180) days. /cds

DAR turns over Php15M road to LGU-Iguig

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR-Region 02) turned over the concreted farm-to-market (FMR) road in favor of the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Iguig, Cagayan on October 4, 2012. The project costs P15,400,643.22 funded by DAR-Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Support Project (DAR-ARISP), Phase III.

Ribbon cutting: L-R: Hon. Juditas Trinidad, DAR Regional Director Atty. Marjorie Ayson-Alzate, PARO Gil Acasili and DAR ASEC  Jose Z. Grajeda. 

The DAR-ARISP III project is funded jointly by the Government of the Philippines through the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and by the Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It involves a tripartite approach, a collaboration among the implementing agencies. It involves construction/rehabilitation of rural infrastructure such as irrigation facilities, farm-to-market roads, post harvest facilities, and rural water supply systems, agrarian reform information and marketing center building, development of coop-managed agri-business/rural enterprise/livelihood farmers’ organizations in the Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) through appropriate training and capacity building approaches.

The P15 million farm-to-market road (4.5 kms.) at Eastern Iguig Agrarian Reform Community. 

The 4.536-kilometer Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) traverses the barangays/villages of Minanga Sur, Sta. Barbara and San Esteban, which are also the component barangays of EASTERN IGUIG AGRARIAN REFORM COMMUNITY (Eastern Iguig ARC). An Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) is a barangay at the minimum or a cluster of contiguous barangays where there is a critical mass of farmers and farm workers awaiting the full implementation of agrarian reform. The farmers and the farm workers will anchor the integrated development of the area.

MARO Arthur Urata (speaking) and DF Edgar Cordova facilitated the realiztion of this DAR-ARISP project.  

The project was facilitated mainly by the DAR Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer, MARO Arthur Urata, presently assigned at DAR Municipal Office at Iguig, Cagayan and Edgar Cordova, the Development Facilitator (DF) at DARMO-Iguig. The project was strongly supported by the Local Government of Iguig led by the Mayor Hon. Juditas Trinidad and the Vice-Mayor, Hon. Ferdinand Trinidad as head of the Municipal Council.

Iguig town mayor, Hon. Juditas Trinidad

In the province of Cagayan, Farm-to-Market Roads are some of the support services being implemented under the agrarian reform program which traditionally serves to connect rural or agricultural areas to market towns, such as Tuguegarao City, where the major markets and distribution centers are located.

DAR Regional Director Atty. Marjorie Ayson-Alzate,

          The concrete farm-to-market road will provide the community with an all-weather barangay road and will also significantly help reduce the farmers’ costs of transporting their goods and reduce the travel time to the market and trading centers.

DAR ASEC Jose Z. Grajeda.

Project beneficiaries and stakeholders. 

The turn-over ceremony was attended by no less than DAR ASEC. Jose Z. Grajeda, DAR Regional Director, Atty. Marjorie Ayson-Alzate, PARO Virgilio Acasili, Mayor Juditas Trinidad, Vice-Mayor Ferdinand Trinidad, other public officials, members of the media, farmer-beneficiaries and other stakeholders. The event was facilitated by MARO Arthur Urata. cds/mtb
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DAR-Cagayan Tree Planting

The Department of Agrarian Reform Provincial Office (DARPO) in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan celebrated the 3^rd CARPER (R.A. No. 9700) Anniversary on August, 2012 with a tree planting activity at barangay Maddarulug, Solana, Cagayan wherein approximately 300 mahogany tree and other fruit tree seedlings were planted by the municipal agrarian reform officers (MAROs), division chiefs (CARPOs), and provincial agrarian reform officers (PAROs).   

For our children and our children's children...

The  tree planting activity is in line with the National Greening Program (NGP) pursuant to Executive Order No. 26, dated February 24, 2011 signed President Benigno S. Aquino, III which mandated the DA-DAR-DENR Convergence Initiative to develop a National Greening Program in cooperation with the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Social Welfareand Development (DSWD), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), private sector and other concerned agencies and institutions. The program aims to plant trees on 1.5 million hectares for a period of six years from 2011 to 2016. It is a multi-sectoral project, as such, the project harmonizes all the greening efforts of both public and private sectors, such as the Upland Development Program, LuntiangPilipinas, etc.   

No, that's not an ARB, that's PARO Gil Acasili...

       Under the program, any individual, group, school, organization, or company can be a part of the NGP as a volunteer tree planter, or donor/sponsor of seedlings, planting tools, and other materials such as organic fertilizers. In fact, government employees and students (Grades 5-6, high school, and college) are expected to plant at least 10 seedlings a year.

A little more and we're done for today....

Barangays and state universities and colleges (SUCs) are also encouraged to establish nurseries for the NGP. The DAR is also targeting Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) to participate by encouraging them to establish nurseries and to plant fuel wood in order to reduce the need to cut down other trees for fuel.

Fertilizer please...

The NGP aims to plant a variety of trees such as, agroforestry species for the production zones and indigenous/native/endemic species for protection zones and urban areas.  /cds

Eastern Alcala ARC Peanuts at Pav-Vurulun Festival Fair

 Roasted In-Shell Peanuts from Eastern Alcala Agrarian Reform Community (Eastern Alcala ARC) were once again exhibited and sold at the PAV-VURULUN Festival Trade Fair at Tuguegarao City on August 8-16, 2012 at the 3^rd Floor, Mall of the Valley, Tuguegarao City on the occasion of the Patronal City Fiesta of Tuguegarao City, Cagayan (North).

Native peanuts thrive in the fertile soils of the Cagayan Valley Region, but in the municipality of Alcala, Cagayan province, it is grown and processed into a high-end commercial product. The Roasted In-Shell Peanuts of Alcala Rural Improvement Club (RIC) Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MPC) became even more popular when it received an award as one of the best processed food during the 9^th Agraryo Trade Fair held sometime in June, 2010 at the Megatrade Hall, SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City, Philippines.

9th Agraryo Trade Fair Best Processed Food...

Roasted In-Shell (or Inshell) Peanut is a good source of protein and the “good fat” meaning, it has naturally zero Cholesterol. It is now being considered as one of the better alternatives for daily snacks by health-conscious people and those who at risk of developing heart diseases.

AWRIC In-Shell Roasted Peanut 

Would you believe that a peanut is actually not a nut because it is a legume related to the beans and lentils? In fact, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition sometime in December 1991 showed that diets high in monounsaturated fats from peanuts (including peanut butter) reduces a person’s risk from cardiovascular disease by as much as 21% compared to the standard American diet. It was also shown that eating a low-fat diet reduced the same risk by only 12%. One cup of In-Shell Roasted Peanuts yields 305 calories (shell not eaten, of course), which is broken down as 73% fat (the good fat), 9% carbohydrate and 18% protein.

This In-Shell Roasted Peanuts is manufactured by the Alcala Rural Improvement Club Multi-Purpose Cooperative located at Centro Sur, Alcala, Cagayan. It is an all-women organization and an agrarian reform beneficiary organization (ARBO) within the Eastern Alacala Agrarian Reform Community. /cds

Eastern Iguig ARC Water Supply System Completed

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has completed the construction and is ready to turn-over a Potable  Water Supply System (Level II) project at barangay Sta. Barbara, a component barangay of Eastern Iguig Agrarian Reform Community (Eastern Iguig ARC) in Iguig, Cagayan.

The Eastern Iguig ARC  Potable Water Supply project was funded by the Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Project III (ARISP-III)-Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Iguig, Cagayan with a total project cost of P3,707,530.73 and is expected to benefit some 647 agrarian reform beneficiary households.

The potable water system in the ARC will significantly decrease the incidence of water-borne diseases among school children. It will also provide water for vegetable gardening activities and opportunities for rural enterprises among farming households in the area resulting to increase in income. cds/mtb

Php15M Farm-to-Market Road Completed in Iguig, Cagayan

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is scheduled to turn-over sometime in July 2012 in favor of the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Iguig in Cagayan province a 4.536-kilometer Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) traversing the barangays/villages of Minanga Sur, Sta. Barbara and San Esteban, which are also the component barangays of EASTERN IGUIG AGRARIAN REFORM COMMUNITY (Eastern Iguig ARC).

An Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) is a barangay at the minimum or a cluster of contiguous barangays where there is a critical mass of farmers and farm workers awaiting the full implementation of agrarian reform. The farmers and the farm workers will anchor the integrated development of the area.

Farm-to-Market Roads are some of the support services being implemented under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which traditionally serves to connect rural or agricultural areas to market towns. In this case, from Eastern Iguig ARC to Tuguegarao City, where the major markets and distribution centers are located.

The concrete farm-to-market road will provide the agrarian farmer-beneficiaries, the members of their households  and the community in general with an all-weather barangay road and will also significantly help reduce the farmers’ costs of transporting their goods as well as their travel time to the market and trading centers, also, it will substantially increase their income due to savings from transport costs, lesser damage/spoilage to their goods, etc.

There are approximately 1,083 households who will benefit from the project at a cost of P15,498,684.90 funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Project-III (ARISP-III), Local Government Unit of Iguig (LGU-Iguig) and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

The completion of the concrete farm-to-market road will not only improve the living conditions of the people in Eastern Iguig ARC and its neighboring barangays/villages but it will also open more opportunities for economic development of the area. cds/mtb

Cooperatives: A New Perspective

I have always believed that one way for the Filipinos to rise from poverty is to be an entrepreneur. But I always hear that a major hindrance to becoming an entrepreneur is the perennial lack of capital for those who are interested to engage in some kind of business enterprise. Maybe unknown to them is the alternative of associating or organizing a pool of people who are similarly interested to pursue a business through a cooperative enterprise. In this way, a core number of individuals could pool money, human resources and talent to build capital, and work together to produce more goods and increase income.

            There are more than twenty thousand cooperatives operating in the Philippines as of October 2011 with a total membership of more than eleven million people composed of farmers, fisherfolk, women, workers, vendors, teachers, government employees, the military, rebel-returnees, and from other sectors who are mostly poor and disadvantaged but they believe in cooperativism and seriously desire to build a better life for them and their families through association and cooperation. These cooperatives in the Philippines have a combined assets of PHP158.6 billion.

            On a global perspective, reports from the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) indicate that over one billion people are members of cooperatives. In Asia, there are 45.3 million members of cooperatives. In Indonesia, 27.5% of families are members of cooperatives. In Japan, 33% of families are members of cooperatives. In Singapore, 50% of the population are members of cooperatives. Membership in cooperatives have increased because of the benefits they derive from being members.

            The contributions of cooperatives into the national economy are also steadily increasing. Agricultural cooperatives in Japan, for instance, agricultural cooperatives generate outputs equivalent to US$90 billion. This may be due to the fact that 91% of the farmers are members of cooperatives. In South Korea, 90% of farmers are members of agricultural cooperatives which have contributed to an output of US$11 billion. Fishery cooperatives in South Korea have a market share of 71%. In Vietnam, cooperatives contribute 8.6% of the country’s gross domestic product. In the Philippines, the cooperative sector is still a growing sector which contributed 4.2% of the country’s gross regional product in 2007. Cooperatives contribute generating and maintaining employment. Worldwide, around one hundred million jobs are provided by cooperatives, which is 20% more than multinational business enterprises.   In the United States, 30,000 cooperatives provide more than 2 million jobs. In Canada, over 155,000 are employed by the sector. In Indonesia, cooperatives provide jobs to 288,600 individuals. Philippine cooperatives, on the other hand, provided jobs to 102, 977 people in 2007, about 0.30% of the country’s labor force. 

            When I attended the Cooperative Regional Conference in Echague, Isabela sometime in  2012, I was awed by the large number of people who are active members of cooperatives in the Cagayan Valley Region. During that meeting, we were provided with information about what is actually happening in Congress, about the efforts and bills introduced to harness and support the collective efforts to strengthen cooperatives of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), of agricultural cooperatives, and to consolidate these cooperatives to maximize benefits from economies of scale. There was also a suggestion for the cooperative members to support Senatorial candidates  are sympathetic to the cooperative sector (although in hushed tones).

            However, there are were issues that came out, specially local and national officials who are stifling the growth of cooperatives by disregarding or refusing to honor the tax benefits and privileges that cooperatives are expressly entitled to under the laws of the Philippines. Some agencies of the government like the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and some officials of Local Government Units (LGUs) have various interpretations of the law and deliberately make it difficult for cooperatives to obtain the Tax Exemption Certificate.

            While it is clear that the spirit of the law is for cooperatives to be given preferential tax treatment as expressed in the law, that is, Republic Act No. 6938, now Republic Act No. 9520, this is not happening in some parts of the Philippines. Even the Supreme Court, in the cases that it has decided ruled that, “cooperatives, including their members, deserve a preferential tax treatment because of the vital role they play in the attainment of economic development and social justice. Thus, although taxes are the lifeblood of the government, the State’s power to tax must give way to foster the creation and growth of cooperatives.”  Justice Isagani A. Cruz, as quoted by Rep. Jose R. Ping-Ay in one of his speeches in Congress, said that: “The power of taxation, while indispensable, is not absolute and may be subordinated to the demands of social justice.” 

         After all, it is true that sovereign power resides in the people, and all government authority emanates from them. Is it really? cds

Agrarian Reform Community Products at Aggaw Trade Fair

TUGUEGARAO CITY, June 23, 2012- Products from the Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) in Cagayan province were featured among the various LGUs’ trade fair booths participating in the 429^th Aggaw Nac Cagayan, a celebration of the civil government founding anniversary of Cagayan province from June 23 to 29, 2012. 

An ARC is a barangay at the minimum or a cluster of contiguous barangays where there is a critical mass of farmers and farm workers awaiting the full implementation of agrarian reform. The farmers and the farm workers will anchor the integrated development of the area.

           Among the ARC products on display and also being sold at the trade fair booths are: Banana Vinegar from PATASDA ARC in Allacapan; candied Tamarind Balls and Tamango (tamarind with mango) from Nasuerteca ARC in Amulung; Banana Chips from ESTEMARCONBAGA ARC also from Amulung; Mango puree and Banana Chips from MALULANI ARC in Sto Nino; Bamboo Lamps from ROBA ARC in Enrile; Milk Candies from Southcag ARC in Tuguegarao City; Organic Rice from SOWESFACO ARC in Solana; Roasted Peanuts from Greenfields ARC in Alcala; and a lot more organic fruits and vegetables from various ARCs. Most of the featured ARC products are on display by the LGUs because they are also the One-Town, One-Product (OTOP) adopted by the municipalities where the ARCs are located.

         The Aggaw Nac Cagayan is celebrated at the Cagayan Sports Complex where activities such as talents shows, painting exhibits, livelihood seminars, beauty contests, tournaments (Chess, Billiards, etc), concerts and fireworks. cds

Lighthouse Cooperative Engages Students for Summer Jobs

TUGUEGARAO CITY, SUMMER 2012 - One again, this year’s Sale in the City, a yearly summer sale promo of the Lighthouse Cooperative in Tuguegarao City has engaged a total of seventy (70) student-participants of the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES) pursuant to Republic Act No. 9547, otherwise known as “An Act Strengthening  And Expanding The Coverage Of The Special Program For Employment Of Students, Amending For The Purpose Provisions Of R.A. No. 7323, Otherwise  Known As The Special Program For Employment Of Students.” The law allows any person or entity employing at least ten (10) persons may employ poor but deserving students fifteen (15) years of age but not more than twenty-five (25) years old, paying them a salary or wage not lower than the minimum wage for private employers and the applicable hiring rate for the national and local government agencies. It also provides a specific sharing of salaries for the SPES participants as follows: Sixty per centum (60%) of the said salary or wage shall be paid by the employers in cash and forty per centum (40%) by the government in the form of a voucher which shall be applicable in the payment for the students' tuition fees and books in any educational institution for secondary, tertiary, vocational or technical education: Provided, That local government units (LGUs) may assume responsibility for paying in full his salary or wages. The amount of the education vouchers shall be paid by the government to the educational institutions concerned within thirty (30) days from its presentation to the officer or agency designated by the Secretary of Finance (Section 2, R.A. 9547).

The Sale in the City is a project of the Lighthouse Cooperative which aims to provide an easy and convenient way to shop for school supplies at reduced prices and with more choices of goods, from notebooks to school uniforms. The Lighthouse Cooperative, for this purpose has installed booths for different items along its corridors inside the Jose Alma Arcade, along Luna corner Taft streets in Tuguegarao City.

It has entered into a partnership with the DOLE so it can help students earn some income during their summer break. The objective of the SPES is  to develop the intellectual capacities of children of poor families and harness their potentials for the country's well being. Specifically, the Program aims to help poor but deserving students pursue their education by providing income or augment their income through encouraging their employment during summer and/or Christmas vacations. The SPES is open to all qualified high school, college or vocational students or drop-outs and interested employers. /cds