Tabuk City, Kalinga - Cooperatives in this province have signed a manifesto opposing the Manual on Rules and Regulations (MORR) for credit and savings cooperatives calling the regulations "both a nightmare to us and an angel of death for the cooperative movement."
In a rally organized by the local chapter of the nationwide United Cooperative Movement (UCM) on December 10, local cooperatives lambasted the MORR which was drafted by the Cooperative Development Authority and approved by Malacanang for implementation on October 16,2007 as illegal, in bad faith, anti-people and destructive.
Lawyer Dick Bal-o, member of the Sangguniang Panlungsod here, opined that the MORR violated the procedural and substantive requirements for the passage of laws.
Citing sources, Bal-o said that the MORR did not undergo proper public hearings where the stakeholders would Have been invited to express their opinion on the proposed regulations.
Bal-o also said the MORR has contents which are not consistent with the Cooperative Code of the Philippines which it is supposed to implement citing as samples the inclusion of appointment to government office among the disqualifications for doctors of cooperatives and also the requirement for cooperatives to secure licenses.
Bal-o also said the MORR was not published in a generally circulated newspaper which is mandated by law.
One of the most objectionable contents of the MORR to the local cooperatives is the provision which requires candidates for directors to be college graduates.
Tabuk Farmers' Multi-purpose Cooperative manager Emilio Dulnuan questioned the provision .saying that by contrast, the law only requires candidates for elective positions in the government to be merely able to read and write.
He pointed out that many cooperatives in the countryside have been started and nurtured by non-college graduates and now all of a sudden the government disenfranchises these cooperative pioneers.
Dulnuan said that instead of picking on the lowly officers of cooperatives, the government should attend to worthwhile concerns to help farmers many of whom are members of cooperatives such as the price of palay which stagnated in the last 10 years and in contrast, the price of fertilizer which has tripled during the same period.
UCM-Kalinga chairman Bishop Renato Abibico pointed out that the apparent intent of the MORR is to make cooperatives operate like banks which could not be since the two institutions have different cultures and values.
He also said that with the implementation of the MORR, cooperatives will be supervised by authorized bodies and the service fees required for this supervision will be a heavy burden on cooperatives.
Abibico said that using the MORR formula for supervision service fees, the Tabuk Multi-purpose Cooperative (TAMPCO) whose assets stood at P332M at the end of October 2007 would have paid P325,000.00 had it been supervised for the first ten months of the year.
"The standards and rules set by the MORR are so stringent that small cooperatives will have nothing else to do except try and cope with them," Abibico said.
Provincial Engineering Office Multi-purpose Cooperative CEO Bansen Bangibang claimed that with the MORR, the government now appears to be looking at the cooperative sector as a source of revenues. **By Estanislao Albano Jr., ZZW Dec. 16, 2007
In a rally organized by the local chapter of the nationwide United Cooperative Movement (UCM) on December 10, local cooperatives lambasted the MORR which was drafted by the Cooperative Development Authority and approved by Malacanang for implementation on October 16,2007 as illegal, in bad faith, anti-people and destructive.
Lawyer Dick Bal-o, member of the Sangguniang Panlungsod here, opined that the MORR violated the procedural and substantive requirements for the passage of laws.
Citing sources, Bal-o said that the MORR did not undergo proper public hearings where the stakeholders would Have been invited to express their opinion on the proposed regulations.
Bal-o also said the MORR has contents which are not consistent with the Cooperative Code of the Philippines which it is supposed to implement citing as samples the inclusion of appointment to government office among the disqualifications for doctors of cooperatives and also the requirement for cooperatives to secure licenses.
Bal-o also said the MORR was not published in a generally circulated newspaper which is mandated by law.
One of the most objectionable contents of the MORR to the local cooperatives is the provision which requires candidates for directors to be college graduates.
Tabuk Farmers' Multi-purpose Cooperative manager Emilio Dulnuan questioned the provision .saying that by contrast, the law only requires candidates for elective positions in the government to be merely able to read and write.
He pointed out that many cooperatives in the countryside have been started and nurtured by non-college graduates and now all of a sudden the government disenfranchises these cooperative pioneers.
Dulnuan said that instead of picking on the lowly officers of cooperatives, the government should attend to worthwhile concerns to help farmers many of whom are members of cooperatives such as the price of palay which stagnated in the last 10 years and in contrast, the price of fertilizer which has tripled during the same period.
UCM-Kalinga chairman Bishop Renato Abibico pointed out that the apparent intent of the MORR is to make cooperatives operate like banks which could not be since the two institutions have different cultures and values.
He also said that with the implementation of the MORR, cooperatives will be supervised by authorized bodies and the service fees required for this supervision will be a heavy burden on cooperatives.
Abibico said that using the MORR formula for supervision service fees, the Tabuk Multi-purpose Cooperative (TAMPCO) whose assets stood at P332M at the end of October 2007 would have paid P325,000.00 had it been supervised for the first ten months of the year.
"The standards and rules set by the MORR are so stringent that small cooperatives will have nothing else to do except try and cope with them," Abibico said.
Provincial Engineering Office Multi-purpose Cooperative CEO Bansen Bangibang claimed that with the MORR, the government now appears to be looking at the cooperative sector as a source of revenues. **By Estanislao Albano Jr., ZZW Dec. 16, 2007
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