A newly-formed Department of Cooperatives would be able ‘to handle in the manner of battering ram’ the increasing requirements of cooperatives in helping reduce poverty and in providing job opportunities and livelihoods to those living below the poverty level.
CDA Administrator Eulogio Castillo stressed this much yesterday during the weekly Kapehan sa Dabaw at the SM Ecoland.
“The enactment into law of DepCo (Dept. of Cooperatives) will enable the government to reach out to the poorest of the poor, thus creating nation-wide economic activities that will generate income and livelihood opportunities to all people to all walks of life.”
Accompanied by cooperative advocates Reynaldo Rodis and Fred Lumba, Castillo pushed for the passage of House Bill 4174 which will elevate the Cooperative Development Authority to a line department.
Authored principally by Agusan Sur (1st dist.) Rep. Maria Valentina Plaza, HB 4174 has acquired the nod of 200 members of the Lower Chamber who have affixed their signatures as co-authors of the said bill.
Rodis narrated that during a courtesy call on Pres. Rodrigo Duterte on May 16, last year, he proposed the idea of creating a line department that will elevate the CDA from a mere agency to a Department of Cooperatives.
Duterte welcomed the idea and tasked Rodis to prepare a position paper on the matter.
“We (together with Lumba) immediately submitted the position paper after one week, requesting also that the CDA be transferred from the Department of Finance to the Office of the President.”
As requested, the President issued Executive Order No.1 placing the CDA under the Office of the Cabinet Secretary,
Lumba said DepCo will create livelihood opportunities to the unemployable millions (drug rehabs, ex-convicts, rebel returnees, the IPs, and the uneducated) as they become members in good standing of their respective cooperatives.
“Our advocacy and vision are to enable every barangay to put up its own multi-purpose cooperative in the near future.”
Castillo also said the creation of DepCo is very timely as various unresolved matters affecting many cooperative entities are now increasing day by day.
“The CDA remains operational only at the regional level. We have no local cooperative development officers in the provincial and municipal levels which are the front-liners in attending to myriad of problems affecting the common people.
Rodis said all it will take to make the DepCo a reality is the signature of Pres. Duterte to certify HB 4174 as an urgent and priority measure of the incumbent government,
If the Chief Executive does certify HB 4174 as an urgent and priority bill, it will complement the government’s federalism campaign and its crusade against illegal drugs, crime and corruption.
