PICPA BICOL REGIONAL COUNCIL AND CAMARINES SUR CHAPTER
COOPERATIVE WEBINAR SERIES
MEMORANDUM CIRCULARS ISSUED BY CDA AFFECTING THE
FINANCIAL OPERATIONS OF COOPERATIVE
A Reaction Paper
Greyzon R. Abdon
BSAcc – 4A
Today, in an era when many people feel powerless to change their lives,
cooperatives represent a strong, vibrant, and viable economic alternative. Cooperatives
are formed to meet peoples’ mutual needs. They are based on the powerful idea that
together, a group of people can achieve goals that none of them could achieve alone.
The idea of cooperation is not new to man. It is as old as man himself.
Cooperatives are an almost universal form of organization today found in practically all
countries and used by people in many ways. The cooperatives are formed to secure low-
cost credit, to purchase supplies and equipment for farming and household needs, to
market products, even to secure many services, like electric power, irrigation, health, and
insurance. Cooperatives can be used in many ways to benefit people in the everyday
needs of life.
The meaning of cooperation is that isolated and powerless individuals can, by
combining with one another, achieve advantages available to the rich and the powerful
so that they may advance not only materially but also morally. In other words, a
cooperative is a business organization that is owned by those who use its services, the
control of which rests equally with all the members. It is voluntary and democratic and the
moral element is as important as the material one. Furthermore, it recognizes social,
educational, and community values.
It is easier to understand the concept of the cooperative by knowing its specific
objectives. They can be summed as follows: they aim to provide goods and services, they
aim to eliminate the unnecessary profits of middlemen in trade and commerce, they seek
to prevent the exploitation of the weaker members of society, they aim to protect the rights
of people both as producers and consumers, and they promote mutual understanding
and education among their members and people in general.
Cooperatives are the presently utilized by the government as the more effective
tools for economic development. The Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), the
government agency in charge of development and monitoring cooperatives in the country
is a voluntary organization of people who have agreed to pool their resources together in
order to undertake an economic enterprise for the purpose of meeting their common
needs, and which they themselves democratically manage and control, and share the
economic benefits on the basis of participation and patronage. In this definition,
cooperatives are SHOs which are also business enterprises which the members
themselves own, manage and control in accordance with accepted democratic principles.
They are not organized primarily for profit nor to serve other people but to serve the needs
of their own members. Memberships in cooperatives is voluntary and open to all those
who need their services. Finally, the economic benefits from cooperatives are shared by
the members in proportion to the individual member's patronage of the business or
enterprise.
Cooperatives are viewed as important tools for improving the living and working
conditions of both women and men. Since the users of the services owned them,
cooperatives make decisions that balance the need for profitability with the welfare of
their members and the community, which they serve. Cooperatives organize all over the
world because they can help in almost every circumstance. Both developing and
developed countries depend on cooperatives because they are an empowering model
that promotes collaborative social change. While foreign aid and investments drastically
help impoverished communities, external remedies are only half the battle. Co-ops
provide a grassroots initiative and social structure to address all symptoms of poverty.
Cooperatives also make aid and assistance all the more powerful. With strong
communities and the right foreign assistance, eradication of extreme poverty becomes all
the more feasible.
