Sunday, May 04, 2008 The billionaire coop at 38 By Jenara Regis Newman
FROM an inauspicious beginning in 1970, with a capitalization of P200 and 29 members, the Cebu CFI (Court of First Instance) Community Cooperative has grown to be a billionaire today. It has P1.6 billion in assets and a membership of 32,000. Its unprecedented growth is largely due to the vision of its founder, former Judge Esperanza Fiel Garcia.
It was when she was clerk of court In 1969 that she saw that her co-employees were most of the time caught in a cycle of debts from usurious “5-6” money lenders. To stop this cycle was her main concern and a cooperative, patterned after a successful cooperative in Southern Leyte run by Canadian priests was, for her, the answer.
To keep the money lenders away, the cooperative is being innovative in the nature of the loans it gives and in the office hours it keeps: the office is kept open until the last client is served.
Among the services it gives are salary loans, housing loans, car loans, educational loans, provident or emergency loans and even Christmas loans and kalag-kalag loans (for those who have death in the family) given not based on investment but on capacity to pay.
Garcia notes that of the kinds of loans given, educational loans have the biggest amount: P600 million in 2006 and P1 billion in 2007. This, she said, shows that people are now more aware of the importance of education.
With its assets, the cooperative set-up its own school in 1998, the Lyceum of Cebu, which this year offers complete elementary and high school, as well as BSE-Ed and commerce courses. In 2002, it set up its own bank, the Cooperative Bank of Cebu, with branches in Carcar, Danao and Bogo. The cooperative itself has also expanded its area of coverage, with branches in Tagbilaran, Ormoc, Bais, Tacloban and Calbayog, and satellite offices in Poro, Barili, Bogo, Santander, and Carcar, most of these with cooperative-owned buildings and lots.
The cooperative’s main office, right now housed at the Provincial Capitol legislative building after its own building burned down on Dec. 26, 2006, will be transferred to its own edifice now under construction on a lot it acquired adjacent to the Capitol.
It will be an eight-story building (with the sixth floor now under construction) costing P94 million. The first four floors will house the cooperative and the fifth to eighth floors will be rented out.
Giving the members what is due them has always been a guiding principle of Garcia. Last year, it gave the members 32 percent return if investment in the form of dividends, plus 12 percent patronage refund. And as part of its corporate social responsibility, it will give, on the occasion of its 38th anniversary, P100,000 each to the cities of Tagbilaran, Ormoc, Bais, Calbayog and Cebu, and the provinces of Bohol, Leyte, Negros Oriental and Northern Samar for their projects. To Cebu province, it is giving four classrooms worth P1.2 million. Last year, it gave Cebu province P1 million (as gift) because the cooperative has been housed in a province-owned building for free. The cooperative has certainly “arrived,” to be in the position to give to local government units (LGUs) instead of LGUs being asked for funds from a non-government organizations.
Members will also have their bonuses share in the progress of the cooperative when it holds its 38th annual general assembly on May 4 at the Cebu International Convention Center. It will be raffling off minor cash and other prizes, with a Vios Toyota van as its main raffle prize. The other branches all had their own raffle, with cash prizes and rice.
Garcia recalls that the cooperative had its share of hard times. It was when she retired as judge in 1993 when she turned 60 (she was named judge in 1985) and devoted more time to the cooperative that it has grown rapidly.
She is helped in this endeavor by the cooperative’s board of directors: Dr. Carolino B. Mordeno, vice-chairman, Judge Teresita A. Galanida, Atty. Lito Astillero, Ramon L. Dumayac Jr., Engr. Imelda J. Perez, Atty. Manolette F. E. Dinsay, Atty. Anecita Pasaylo, Alma Jarantilla; the council of elders Engr. Rodolfo Quiroga and Atty. Job Pagusara; and board secretary and manager, Ophelia M. Morales, an accountant.
