Pagdanganan calls for a new kind of revolution

Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) Chairman and Presidential Adviser on Cooperative Development Roberto Pag-danganan led the more than 5,000 cooperative leaders who gathered for the National Cooperative Summit in Cagayan De Oro from Nov. 28 to 30.

The theme of the 2002 summit was "empowering communities through cooperatives: a leading edge for global peace and sustainable development."

In his keynote speech, he recounted the history of cooperative development in the Philippines, which traces its roots to national hero Jose Rizal as one of the earliest advocates of cooperative movement in the country. He also cited the roles that cooperatives play in national development not only in the country but in many developed countries. He commended, too, the best performing cooperatives from all over the Philippines.

The focus of his message to the cooperative leaders is on the cooperative development agenda, which includes the re-engineering of the Cooperative Development Authority to become more responsive to the needs of the cooperative sector. He committed his work in making CDA a more relevant and proactive partner of cooperatives in their development.

He, also, proposed the establishment of strong support systems and structures for cooperatives to include a centralized financial, accounting and auditing systems, as well as, a ladderized, modular and skills oriented education programs for cooperative leaders and people.

Sec. Pagdanganan, who once served as governor of the province of Bulacan acknowledges the need to strengthen community-based cooperatives, which he notes help in the development of Bulacan.

"While there are around 35,000 operating cooperatives in the country, how come we have not been successful in fighting poverty and why is the collective growth of cooperatives stunted?" he noted as he creates a challenge for a cooperative revolution.

He echoed the urgent call for cooperative revolution, the same line that served as title of his book as he justifies such call to benefit the 42 million poor Filipinos. The urgency, he claims, is brought about by the need to bring about change in the lives of Filipino people, millions of them belonging to a cooperative.

"The challenge ahead is to harness all successful efforts into one big push so as to have economies of scale," he challenges coop leaders. He notes that despite setbacks, there was never a time in the history that the country had the most number of operating cooperatives and the most number of successful ones.