Friday, September 12, 2008 Cooperative Code Amendments passed at House By Cong B. Corrales
JUST as the song goes, there is strength in numbers.
This has once again been proven true as united cooperative leaders won anew in their legislative advocacy battle for the enactment of Cooperative Code Amendments.
House Bill (HB) 4312, an act amending the Cooperative Code of the Philippines, has just been approved for second reading in the plenary and will be ready for third reading in the House of Representatives next week.
Introducing the bill in the lower house is Coop-Natcco partylist representative Guillermo Cua along with represantives Domogan, Biazon, Gullas, Codilla, Zialcita, Syjuco, Garcia (P), Pablo, Valdez, Briones, Rodriguez, Climaco and Pancrudo.
"Aggressive lobbying and alliance-building in the legislative branch was key to our first-round victory in our legislative advocacy," said Jojo Ebron, Mindanao area coordinator of Coop-Natcco partylist, in an interview with Sun.Star on Thursday.
Coop-Natcco partylist mobilized its network of cooperative leaders from Mindanao, National Capital Region (NCR), and Rizal province to push for the passage of the Cooperative Code Amendments. Representatives from Mass-Specc, Oro Integrated Cooperative, Tagum Cooperative, MSU-IIT Iligan Cooperative, Panabo-MPC, Sta. Catalina-MPC, Cooperative of Tangub City, Tagcodec, Paco-Soriano Pandacan Development Cooperative, Acdeco, Binangonan Development Cooperative, among others trooped in massé at the Lower House.
On the other hand, Representative Cua's proposal to insert the chapter on Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SCCs) and Financial Service Cooperatives (FSCs) in the Senate Substitute Bill on the Cooperative Code Amendments was endorsed by Senator Noynoy Aquino in the Senate Plenary Discussion on the Cooperative Code Amendments last July 29 this year.
However, Senator Miguel Zubiri, chairperson of the Senate committee on cooperatives and principal sponsor of the Senate version of the amendatory bill, did not consider the proposal, adding that the provisions on the SCCs will be deferred for consideration in the bicameral committee.
With the period for individual amendments of the senators on the Cooperative Code closing for the session, Coop-Natcco aggressively lobbied Zubiri to include the proposed SCC provisions before the bicameral committee meeting.
Meanwhile, the lobbying delegates of Coop-Natcco approached Senator Aquilino Pimentel to request that the plenary re-open the discussion on the Substitute Bill on Cooperative Code Amendments and that he be allowed to make additional amendments.
Pimentel discussed the importance of the special provisions strengthening SCCs and FSCs, citing that "savings and credit functions comprise more the 60 percent of all operational cooperatives in the country."
With. Pimentel on board, Zubiri later on concurred to insert the provision strengthening cooperatives engaged in savings and credit.
Finally, in August 12 this year, Zubiri presented the SCC-supportive provisions for inclusion in the amendatory bill during the Senate Plenary Session and the Senate version of the Cooperative Code Amendments and was approved.
