COOPS ‘ STORIES OF SUCCESS-HIGHLIGHTS COOP MONTH CELEBRATIONStory on P. 6 CDA Completes Board of Administrators; Welcomes Administrator for Visayas Prior to passing of Re- public Act No. 11364 known as an Act Reorganizing and Strengthening the Coopera- tive Development Authority, 710th SOW-PAF: Cooperatives, Strong Allies to End Insurgency, Repealing for the Purpose By: Marilyn D. Eso Republic Act No. 6939, Cre- 2019, BGEN EDWARD L LIBAGO AFP, ating The Cooperative De- Wing Commander, 710th Special Oper- velopment Authority, the CDA ations Wing of the Philippine Air Force, completed the six (6) Board recognized the significant contributions of Administrators for Luzon, and the support system of the cooper- Visayas, and Mindanao in the ative movement to end insurgency par- person Administrator Vidal ticularly on neutralizing the activities of Dumindin Villanueva III. the New People’s Army (NPA) and other Administrator Villan- leftist group in their area of responsibili- ueva was appointed as the ty. new CDA Administrator for BGEN LIBAGO acknowledged the Visayas by His Excellency President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on Au- that the cooperative movement has gust 13, 2019. The CDA family warmly welcomed him with full of trust been of great help to the military in iden- and enthusiasm and assured him to support all his undertakings for the Nasugbo, Batangas – tifying the possible presence of the NPA growth and development of the authority and the cooperative sector. During the celebration of the 16th members in their area. All cooperative Adm. Villanueva is a 4th year Bachelor of Laws student at Gullas Batangas Industrial Security Alli- members have become allies of the School of Law of the University of the Visayas in Cebu City. He earned ance (BISA) on September 27, 730th Combat Group-PAF in maintain- his Bachelor of Science in Commerce Degree, major in Management, Continue to p. 10 Continue to p.9 CDA-MEO Marks Coop New CDA – Davao Extension Month’s Celebration Office Building Soon with Buy and Give to Rise Trade Fair By: CRITS, CDA-DEO By: Jezzelen Mae M. Cuevas In celebration of this year’s Cooperative Davao City – “A new office/building for Month, the Cooperative Development Authority Cooperative Development Authority-Davao – Manila Extension Office, Caritas Margins, Re- Extension Office (CDA-DEO) is expected to rise by June 2020, if everything goes well as planned’,” John Frances S. Fuentes, Acting PIO, Department of Public Works and High- ways said during the Ground Breaking Cer- emony for New CDA-DEO Office Building on August 22, 2019. As planned, the new office build- ing is a three (3) story building with around 593.88 square meter total floor area situated Continue to p. 10 Continue to p. 9 Climate Change Adapta- CDA and TESDA Ink Agreement to Empower Cooperative tion & Mitigation: KN- Members, IDPs, IPs, and Rebel Returnees By: Marilyn D. Eso MPC Best Practices in Taguig City – The Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) under the Saving MOTHER EARTH leadership of Chairman ORLANDO R. By: Georgina Basco, Leonora Garcia, Mercy J. Gabasa, RAVANERA and Technical Education The song by Carol Johnson clearly highlights the and Skills Development Authority (TES- importance of the “Mother Earth” as sources of every- DA) under Director-General ISIDRO S. thing we need: the air we breathe, the food we eat, the LAPEÑA further strengthened the part- water we drink and peaceful place to dwell on. A place or nership by signing a Memorandum of planet that gives resources, serenity and sustainability in Agreement (MOA) that will empower deserving members, officers and staff enjoying the beauty and comfort of life. of cooperatives, including the Indig- However, the current condition of earth is in dam- Continue to p. 9 aged state and under threat from dangers: such as global Continue to p. 5 Philippines-China Partnership: Shaping Great Future for Agricultural Coops By: Marilyn D. Eso Experience in China different agriculture and agricul- within twenty-one (21) days with ture related cooperatives in the my twenty-three (23) co-dele- country. Collectively, we have gates in the Seminar on Farmers’ the same feelings – inspired by Cooperative for the Philippines is the learning and insights gained really awesome! during the seminar and sympo- We are eight (8) from siums attended; motivated by the Cooperative Development the field visits to China’s differ- Authority’s different offices and ent demonstration cooperatives; extensions and the sixteen (16) agitated by the contributions and others are keys officers from Continue to p. 8 A TRIBUTE TO OUR CHAMPION AND HERO: AQUILINO “NENE” PIMENTEL, JR.: The Father of Cooperativism Story on P. 12 CDA @phcoops PH Cooperatives From the Editor A Tribute to Director Paa By: Chairman Orlando R. Ravanera gional Director, he had showcased a meaningful life based on the princi- ples that he had live by that he exempli- fied in his 28 years of service. Titles, social standing and financial wealth. These are what were described by King Solomon as meaningless, ut- terly meaningless because in the final analysis who we are is defined not by these trappings but the principles that we ardent- ly believe-in and are willing to die for. Yes, Dir. Paa’s compassion to ad- vance the mandate of CDA was based on the truism that where a few elite have much too much and the many who are poor have much too lit- tle, we may be fac- ing circumstances Life and death are not en- ing the poor and the vulnerable to 4th hardest hit country in the world horrible even to contemplate. emies but are entwined aspects of rectify social wrongs of poverty, where tens of thousands had died in One man had outstandingly one’s life. Such truism was beauti- gross inequity and social injustice just a decade due to climate change. exemplified in clear categorical term fully expressed by the great Bengali in a highly skewed societal pyrami- That leading edge convergence was that the essence of his life is to ad- poet, Rabindranath Tagore when he dal order. By working in an office to amazing as it paved the way to hold vance a set of principles, time-hon- wrote, “The night kissed the fad- frontline transformative cooperativ- more summits in different regions ored and universally-accepted, to ing day with a whisper, I am death ism somehow debunks the notion to enhance the awareness of some which he had given high adherence your mother, from me you will get that for those who have dreamt, 10 million cooperative members to. new birth.” Indeed, the opposite of struggled, advocated, sacrificed and through-out the country, giving a To all of us colleagues in CDA, he death is not life but birth because life even died for it, social change has strong message that climate is not was a kindred spirit – a brother to will continue even after one’s death been so elusive all these years de- crisis that will happen in the future us all and cooperators and a leader because death is one’s birthday to spite 14 years of martial law and two but is happening now and must be who fought for the cooperatives, in another life, a spiritual one, which is people powered revolutions. The countervailed upon. Yes, what he whose name and whose cause he far more beautiful than the mundane ingredients, systems and structures was thinking in his solitude is now had lived and died for. life. that are breeding poverty are still as echoed by the multitude! He had lived in our midst, With these poetic lines, it is formidable as ever. But not anymore Yes, working in an office to bringing a beacon of light in the my great honor to give tribute to a under the present dispensation. empower the poor and vulnerable darkness of social inequities and a fallen colleague CDA Regional Di- Cooperativism through peo- could be a very difficult one. In the transformational leader to democ- rector Armonio Paa who had leaped ple empowerment has gained head- course of being a director, he was ratize wealth and power in a high- to the Great Beyond on September ways to give meaning to the “biyaya re-assigned in another region, liv- ly skewed and elitist society. That 20, 2019. Dir Paa had been working ng pagbabago” and that was what ing far from his family but no big should be in our mindset as mem- in the Cooperative Development Au- the good director committed and deal. He worked with a “celes- bers of one CDA family, that as we thority since 1991, serving the least advocated. He even trail-blazed tial fire” of love and his long years promote principles-driven and val- of our brethren for 28 years, draw- together with Ph Haiyan Advoca- of service had given credence to ue-based DNA of cooperativism, ing the marginalized sectors into the cy cooperative and the Climate Khalil Gibran’s poetic line, to quote, it has come of age to effect trans- mainstream of development pro- Change Commission, the Visayas “when you work you are a flute thru formation in a world where there cesses, exemplifying to the highest Cooperative Conference on Climate whose heart the whispering of the is so much veneration of the profit degree that Constitutional mandate Change Adaption and Mitigation on hours turns to music. And what it is motive and denigration of spiritu- that “a public office is a public trust.” November 5-6, 2016. The 2-day to work with love? It is a weave the al values and principles, as human Beginning his career as a Coopera- convergence was the first of its kind cloth with threads drawn from your beings have been transformed into tive Development Specialist II, he in the country, which brought to the heart, even as if your beloved were self-gratification machines.