SOLIDARITY COVENANT

In our desire to help, achieve a united cooperative movement in the Philippines , we, the conveners – the Philippine Cooperative Center (PCC), the Coop NATCCO Party List in the House of Representatives (CNPL), the National Cooperative Development Council (NCDC), Liga ng mga Cooperative Development ng Pilipinas (LCDOP) along with various federations and unions across the country, have prepared a series of activities that will showcase and mainstream the cooperative ideology and identity across the country. These will highlight the sector’s valuable role in society in line with the National Cooperative Month’s celebration in October.

As part of our continuing action, we are developing our strengths and abilities in order for us to be recognized not only as partners of the government in nation-building but also as active participants in crafting policies and laws that will benefit the cooperative movement.

The parliamentary and governance arenas are areas of engagement where cooperatives, together with party list groups and legislators supportive of the sector, can advance the cooperatives’ legislative and executive agenda, benefiting the movement in particular and society in general.

There is a need for the leaders of the cooperative sector to unify their voices and actions, for the empowerment and upliftment of the lives of cooperative members and their communities. In this regard, a Covenant between the sector and our legislators towards a United Cooperative Front is paramount.

HENCE, the Cooperatives hereby express their continuing support for the candidacy of the following Senators and Cooperative Party List groups in the 19^th Congress, particularly Coop NATCCO Party List and AGAP Party list and Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, currently the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Cooperatives, and Senator Risa Hontiveros, currently the Vice Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Cooperatives for their established track records in championing the interest and advocacies of the cooperative movement in the 18^th Congress;

The Cooperatives are convinced that the renewed victory of Coop NATCCO Party List and AGAP Party list, and Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri and Risa Hontiveros in the 2022 Party list and Senate elections, respectively, as well as the participation of KOOP KAMPI in the 2022 Party List Elections, will help ensure that the Cooperatives’ legislative and executive agenda will be truly pursued and realized;

The Cooperatives, the Cooperative Party List groups and the following Senators whose signatures appear below, recognize the importance of this partnership in the pursuit of the cooperative agenda which plays an important role in poverty alleviation and empowerment of the people and their communities;

THEREFORE, in the upcoming 2022 May elections, the parties covenant to pursue in the 19^th Congress, the realization of a common priority legislative and executive agenda of cooperatives, to wit:

1. Retaining the Tax Exemption of Cooperatives.

2. Requiring each LGU to allot cooperatives at least two percent (2%) from the twenty percent (20%) appropriated Development Fund. The cooperatives will then use this funding to implement their plans, programs, activities, and services for the benefit of the LGU and its constituents.

3. Likewise, in the budget appropriation, CDA should appropriate development program fund to capacitate the LGU-CDO, Unions and Federations. The LGU in turn will provide funds for local cooperative development plans, programs, and activities consistent with the Mandanas ruling.

4. Legislating a Cooperative Banking Act, with emphasis given to the cooperative banking sector to have its own rule book, distinct and different from that of rural and commercial banks.

5. Crafting a measure that seeks to amend the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) Charter requiring a payment between 80% to 100% of the actual value of the projected harvest of our farmers. It is only by properly compensating farmers that we can protect their interests and those of their families. This is very much needed at present and in the years to come considering the devastation being brought about by climate change, resulting in stronger typhoons and more unpredictable weather patterns. Agricultural Cooperatives and Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperatives will benefit from this Bill.

6. Passing an Act Mandating the Additional Representation of Cooperatives in The Board of Directors of Land Bank of the Philippines, Amending Republic Act No. 3844, as amended.

7. Providing for the restructuring and condonation of unpaid interests, penalties, and surcharges on loans secured by farmers, fisherfolk and agrarian reform beneficiaries from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Agriculture (DA), People’s Credit and Finance Corporation (PCFC), Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), National Food Authority (NFA) and the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corporation (QUEDANCOR).

8. Strengthening the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), Repealing for the Purpose Presidential Decree No. 146, Entitled “Creating the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation, Prescribing its Powers and Activities Providing for its Capitalisation and for the Required Government Premium Subsidy and for Other Purpose,” as amended by Presidential Decree No. 1733 and Republic Act No. 8175.

9. On Cooperative Deposit Insurance, legislating and/or amending existing legislation such as, but not limited to, amending the PDIC charter to include financial services cooperatives as its members and/or amending the CSF Act to allow for the inclusion of a centralized financial system that provides for a liquidity fund, credit guaranty and deposit insurance system for cooperatives, providing added flexibility in their operations.

10. On Stabilization Fund, a law that supports for the establishment of a Cooperative Stabilization Fund System (SFS), a “solidarity fund” patterned after the models in Germany, Netherlands, Canada and South Korea, where credit co-operatives’ participation is mandatory. The SFS features three elements that ensure sound business operations and maintain depositors’ trust and confidence: 1) Supervision and Monitoring; 2) Off-Site Monitoring and Follow-Through; and 3) Financial Assistance only as last resort.

11. Push for the inclusion of the existing Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) in the proposed amendments in the Agri-Agra Law or the Reform Credit Act of 2009, instead of creating a new council in the proposed bills. However, we welcome the inclusion of Cooperatives in the Council, e.g. Bangkoop, ARB, Farmers, and Fisherfolk. This will ensure that we will have the opportunity to monitor the implementation of the law and can directly propose or recommend adjustments on policy gaps and their implementation.

12. Establishing and recognizing an already existing Apex Organization of All Cooperatives as the Unifying Body of the Cooperative Movement.

13. Institutionalizing the PUV Modernization Program with a Just Transition.

14. Establishing the Transport Loan Cooperative Fund.

15. Amending Rep Act No. 11364 to include the NAPC Cooperative Sectoral Representative as an Ex Officio Member of the Cooperative Development Authority.

16. Review and amendments of certain provisions of RA 9520 i.e. Usage of Cooperative Development Fund, Registration of Electric Cooperatives among others.

The Cooperatives, through the Philippine Cooperative Center (PCC), the National Cooperative Development Council (NCDC), the Liga ng mga Cooperative Development Officers ng Pilipinas (LCDOP), National and Regional Federations, and Unions, together with their primary members, in turn, will undertake activities on their own and/or in partnership with the Party List Groups and the Senators concerned to support their candidacies in the elections of May 2022. They will help the cooperatives in the latter’s realization of their priority legislative and executive agenda and advocacies both inside and outside the 19^th Congress.

If the following Party List groups and Senators win in the elections, the parties further agree that there will be periodic meetings and conferences to further confer and strategize on the common legislative and executive agenda of the Cooperatives, as well as other concerns affecting the cooperative sector.

In recognition and support of the foregoing aspirations, we affix our signatures for and in behalf of our respective organizations and representations.

Please click this link for the signed document: Download