COOPERATIVES MANAGEMENT

• Cooperation is not a modern-day invention, it is as old as mankind itself
• Bayanihan


  In the Philippines, examples of the widespread presence in Philippine dialects of the concept of cooperative or a group of people working together in cooperation with each other for a common end
• Insurance Cooperative


  Attempts to set up a form of mutual insurance towards the end of the 18th century to remedy the conditions of the poor
• Benjamin Franklin is attributed to the establishment of an insurance cooperative in America that still exists today, although organized around the middle of the 18th century
• Industrialization, Feudalism, Excess Farm labor

  • As Industrialization progressed in England, the socio-economic and working conditions of workers deteriorated, Feudalism slowly crumbled down, capitalization began to show its ugly side, and there was an exploitation of labor with excess farm labor flocking to the cities for employment
• Robert Owen


  Dubbed the Father of Cooperation, a social reformer who improved the working and living conditions of workers in his cotton mills
• The Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society (REPS) was the first successful consumer cooperative, which still exists today, 160 years after its establishment
• Freidrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen


  Germinated the seeds of the practical brotherhood of men, which we call today the credit union or credit cooperative
• Raiffeisen's credit union ideals


  • Only members could borrow, low-interest loans for provident and productive purposes, member's character as the most important security, common bond of interest to hold members together
• Raiffeisen is regarded as the father of credit cooperatives
• Schulze-Delitzc was working on a credit union plan in the rural areas
• The Chinese cooperative concepts may have been introduced to the Filipinos, since Chinese trading boats at that time did not carry all the goods of one trader
• Feudalism


  Spain was still Feudal at the time that Capitalism was lying to waste the vestiges of Feudalism in England
• Gremio, Gremio Obrero


  Guilds organized in the Philippines, especially towards the end of the Spanish era, which later transformed into labor unions
• Dr. Jose P. Rizal organized different cooperatives in Dapitan in 1896 and asked permission from the Spanish authorities to allow him to go to Sabah to organize an Owe-type cooperative, which was denied
• In San Pedro, Laguna, Emilio Aguinaldo organized cooperatives in 1898
• Isabelo delos Reyes headed the Union Obrero Democrata, the first Philippine Labor Federation, in 1902 during the American colonial period
• Alphonse Desjardins introduced Raiffeinse-type coops into Canada and started the first credit union in the U.S.: Ste. Marie Parish Credit Union in Manchester, New Hampshire in 1909
• Representative Alberto Barreto of Zambalez presented a bill through the efforts of Governor Teodoro Sandiko of Bulacan, providing for the organization of rural credit cooperatives, but it was disapproved by the Philippine Commission
• The Rural Credit Law (Act No. 2508) was passed in 1915, exclusively for agricultural operations
• Act No. 2818 was passed in 1919 that helped in the propagation of cooperatives by providing an appropriation of one million pesos for rice and corn production to members of rural credit associations
• The Cooperative Marketing Law (PA No. 3425) was approved and enacted into law on December 9, 1927, by the American Colonial government to form state-initiated farmers' marketing cooperatives
• By 1939, the total number of rural credit cooperatives reached its peak at 570 associations, with an aggregate membership of 105,000 individuals and resources of P3,376,400. There were also 160 Marketing Cooperative associations established with a total membership of around 5,000 members
• The Consumers League of the Philippines was formally organized on October 18, 1938, and included the Consumers Cooperative Association organized on October 20, 1916, among the faculty, students, and employees of the College of Agriculture of the U.P. at Los Banos, and the Dumaguete Consumers Cooperative Association in 1936, sponsored by professors of Siliman University
• Commonwealth Act No. 565, otherwise known as the Cooperative Law, was enacted in 1936 to provide for the organization of all types of cooperatives
• The National Trading Corporation (NTC) was created to take charge of the formation, organization and supervision of cooperatives or mutual-aid associations, and the National Cooperative Fund (NCF) was established
• In 1941 the National Cooperative Administration (NCA) was established and absorbed the functions of the NTC, including the NCF
• The Japanese-sponsored government of President Laurel exerted efforts to organize consumers' cooperatives to help alleviate the economic suffering of the people, especially those living in Manila, and agriculture-based cooperatives were linked to urban-based coops
• The Emergency Control Administration (ECA) tapped cooperatives primarily for the distribution of relief goods
• Commonwealth Act No. 713 revived the National Cooperative Administration (NCA), but cooperatives were registered as fast as they came without proper orientation of members, and the withdrawal of all tax exemptions and other privileges under RA No. 89 weakened the coop movement in 1946
• In 1947, to consolidate the coop movement, the government transferred the merchandising functions of the NCA over cooperatives to the Philippine Relief and Trade Rehabilitation Administration (PRATRA)
• The Cooperative Administration Office (CAO) was created in 1950 to replace the NCSBC to promote, organize, and oversee the cooperative movement
• The Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing Administration (ACCFA) was created through R.A. No. 821, the Agricultural Cooperative Law, to extend assistance to small farmers in securing liberal credit, promote the effective groupings of farmers into cooperative associations, and enable them to market their agricultural commodities efficiently
• The Non-agricultural Cooperative Law (R.A. No. 2023) was enacted in 1957, under which two prominent big credit unions, San Dionisio Credit Cooperative and the Baguio-Benguet Credit Cooperative, got incorporated
• The Philippine National Cooperative Bank (PNCB) was tasked to provide financing to non-agricultural coops, but mismanagement closed the PNCB after only ten years of operation
• The Code of Agrarian Reforms (R.A. No. 6389) in 1969 decreed that credit, agricultural supplies, and marketing activities of the land reform beneficiaries should be coursed through cooperatives
• During the Marcos regime, the Bureau of Cooperative Development (BCOD) was created under the Department of Local Government and Community Development (DLGCD) as a replacement of CAO, and the pre-cooperatives were called the Samahang Nayon (SN)
• One successful cooperative program of the Marcos regime was the establishment of Electric Cooperatives
• During President Corazon Aquino's administration, R.A. No. 6939, the Cooperative Code of the Philippines, became the law on cooperatives, and the KABISIG People's Movement harnessed the capabilities of NGOs, POs, and cooperative organizations in addressing poverty
• The same was true with the succeeding administration of President Fidel Ramos