TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) is setting its sights in declaring this thriving component city as A Cooperative City in recognition of the magnitude of the populace being members of various established cooperatives.
CDA Chairman Alexander Raquepo said that cooperatives serve as one of the mechanisms in the growth and development of barangays, municipalities and cities like Tabuk where people can pool their resources to achieve the desired change through increased economic activities, maximizing the potentials of the involved sectors in the community.
Raquepo was one of the city’s guests during the Farmers, Cooperatives, Business and Economic Sector Day that was part of the celebration of its 75th founding anniversary and 24th Matagoan festival.
The CDA Chairman stated that Tabuk deserves to be considered as a Cooperative Center because it plays hosts to a good number of cooperatives that have proven to be models of cooperatives not only in the city but also in the whole country through the years with the active support of the members who have kept the said cooperatives thriving amidst the previous crisis experienced by the world at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He announced that the CDA is providing grants to at least three micro cooperatives that will merge where the projected amount is around P500,000 but the same could increase to around P1 million depending on the number of micro cooperatives that intend to merge to ensure their ability to exist amidst the current challenges of having to make the cooperatives survive.
For his part, Mayor Darwin C. Estran֮ero claimed that more than 80 percent of the residence are members of the different types of cooperatives that have been organized that makes the city feasible for such desired declaration by the CDA.
Mayor Estran֮ero pointed out that there was one ailing cooperative when he assumed the city’s mayoralty post in 2019 but the local government extended the appropriate assistance that paved the way for the said cooperative to recover and become an active member of the city’s cooperative sector.
He stipulated that since then, there has been no reports of the presence of ailing cooperatives in the city as all of them remain vibrant and have greatly contributed to the city’s growth and development from a quiet town to a thriving component city, thus, the need for them to continue elevating the city’s status to a higher level in the future.
Estran֮ero recognized the vital role that the various types of cooperatives have played in charting the city’s growth and development over the past several decades as they remained resilient and vibrant despite the challenges posed by the pandemic and the emergence of the advancement of information and communication technology where most of them have also adopted the necessary innovations that paved the way for their consistent growth and establishing the standards of resiliency and co-existence.
He assured the cooperative sector and all other sectors in the city that the local government remains steadfast in extending whatever available assistance that will sustain their vibrance, resilience and existence as pillars of the city’s robust growth towards being a haven of development in the central Cordillera in the future. By Dexter A. See
