“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free, where the world is not broken down by narrow domestic walls, in that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my people awake!”
These poetic lines by India’s Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, reverberated in India four score years ago as the once passive nation rose up against British Imperialism and claimed its independence not through bloody revolution but through a persistent peaceful resistance called “Satyagraha” or love-force, championed by the “Father of the Nation” named Mahatma Gandhi.
That Indian struggle against an empire which boast of colonizing a substantial portion of the globe thereby aptly earning the description, “an empire where the sun does not set,” had put in clear categorical term the slogan, “the people united can never be defeated.”
Whatever be the odds, be it against an empire or conditions that degrade human dignity such as poverty or oppression, the people, at the end, will always triumph. But first, they must be conscienticized on the issues that are causing dehumanizing poverty. Unless they have a clear mind set on these issues, oppression will continue and the massive raking of the Cartels goes on with-out let up.
Foremost of these issues is on the existing of so-called Electric Cooperatives (ECs) which are in fact cooperatives in name only. The landmark decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Philreca vs. DOF was categorical declaring that these ECs are not in fact cooperatives as they do not adhere and practice cooperative principles.
It is very clear that the eleven million members of some 119 ECs in the Philippines are in fact the true MEMBER-CONSUMER- OWNERS (MCOs) as it is shown in the unbundling of their monthly payments two items: amortization of loans and reinvestment which if computed all these years, each MCO has already at least paid more than P20,000 as his/her capital contribution. But until now, such capital contributions have never been recorded or recognized.
During the 4th Mindanao Cooperative Summit, the participants declared:
“Even the millions of MCOs are being deprived to exercise their rights as owners because those running the affairs of the so called ECs, who through all these years have formed powerful cabal of vested interest, are stubbornly insisting that these ECs are cooperatives despite the fact that they do not adhere to time honored and universally-accepted cooperative principles and practices and notwithstanding the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled resoundingly on the ECs’ non tax exemption for not being genuine cooperatives.
“However, instead of registering with Cooperative Development Authority, what the ECs did was to unleash formidable arsenal of lies, deceit, fear-mongering and cash-back lobbying to ensure the continued proliferation and hold of private interest over ECs. MCOs were enticed with bags of grocery items and other goodies to sway their mindset. Lies and deceits were employed to cast doubt on the economic viability of ECs if registered with CDA.”
Enough is enough. For almost 50 years now, social injustice has been perpetuated against the eleven (11) million of MCOs of so-called ECs for the non-recognition of their capital shares that would reach when consolidated a total of 500 billion pesos. We must now rectify a social wrong committed against the 11 million MCOs covering some 55 million Filipinos in a family of five.
Veritas Liberabit Vos (The truth shall set us free). Let this be known by the Filipino people and advocate for what is true, what is good and what is just. Let my people awake!