WHILE we are seeking for alternatives and solutions to the economic crisis, it occurred to some cooperative leaders that the cooperative might just be an answer. Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Rep. Ernesto Pablo, chairman of House committee on cooperatives, CHED Commissioner Manuel Punzal, PUP President Samuel Salvador, Cooperative Development Authority Executive Director Niel Santillan and of course the officers of the PUP Institute of Cooperatives, Professors Elenita Mantalaba and Romulo Martin and other big guns of the cooperative sector were assembled at the Polytechnic University sometime last week for the first national cooperative educators conference. After all speeches were made, it became an occasion for the cooperative leaders and over 100 educators from all over the country to examine curricular offerings on cooperatives in both formal and nonformal education. And the consensus was that there is need to include cooperativism as a subject in the various professional fields, especially in business management. Our economic survival depends on the productivity of our small and medium enterprises, many of which are in the agricultural sector. These enterprises are organized primarily as family corporations or cooperatives. The cooperative, which is based on collective ownership and control by the members offers an attractive structure to lending agencies which favors it as a channel for the delivery of credit services to the rural communities.
But the present reality is that despite the fact that the cooperative has been with us for more than a century (Jose Rizal is believed to have started the first cooperative in 1896 as an exile in Dapitan), it still has to capture the imagination of the majority of the population. Our economic life has primarily centered around the corporate structure where capital and decision-making is provided by a few — members of the family or close friends and relatives who either reap most of the benefits or take responsibility for the risks or losses. In the cooperative, however, every member is entitled to one vote and gets a fair share of the returns or risks depending on his or her contribution. There is therefore equity, equal sharing of benefits and decision-making in the cooperative. Given this orientation, any effort in redirecting corporate to cooperative ownership must be aimed at changing attitudes and inculcating values such as mutual trust, sharing, transparency, a "win-win" attitude, frugality, savings orientation, and of course, solidarity.
There is also the principle of subsidiarity, which in cooperative education or the implementation of cooperative programs, means that the government will only come in when necessary and/or when requested. In areas where initiative or initial capability is lacking, the government or the government duly mandated entity, the Cooperative Development Authority can take the lead.
As some may know, the cooperative has had a checkered history. Although there are success stories that we can now showcase, there are also stories of failure because of greed and mismanagement by its leaders. Despite the socalled "bayanihan" value, many Filipinos are not yet able to extend full trust outside the family. Our orientation to the corporate structure has likewise been further reinforced by past colonizers.
Despite this, the cooperative is regarded as an important component in the government’s anti-poverty program. In the enterprises organized for agrarian reform beneficiaries and fisherfolk organizations, the cooperative is identified as the principal institution for sustainability. To be able to access credit from Quedancor, an enterprise must demonstrate that it is a "bankable" cooperative. Several local governments have "partnered" with cooperatives where the former provided needed infrastructure and resources support which enabled the cooperative to become an economic catalyst — providing employment as well as a social, political and spiritual force.
What do we therefore see as the future of the cooperative? It is still the ideal structure that can answer to the need for a level playing field in the economic arena.
Recent educational philosophy points to the pillar "learning to live together" or cooperation among citizens as the most important pillar after the other three – learning to know, learning to be and learning to do. While we continually seek to upgrade the formal and nonformal education curriculum we must now plan on integrating cooperative learning in early education. Which means that when we start implementing the pre-school program mandated by the present administration, we should be prepared with learning materials and activities. One reason why Denmark and other Scandinavian societies have attained enviable success in their agricultural and industrial programs is because their early education or the so-called "folk high school" emphasizes democratic principles of cooperation and sharing. These are the basic values for survival in our present society. Please e-mail me at
florbraid@yahoo.com 
