“Fifty-three years ago, a group of 25 persons pooled 25 centavos each to form a cooperative. Now the members increased to 504 members with P 10 million share capital. This is the true story of the Kapangan Central Credit and Savings Cooperative as recalled and written by the cooperative officers, staff, and members.”
In January 1968 a Roman Catholic Sister Asuncion Puapo organized the Cooperative with 25 members as a product of an educational training she conducted. The initial contribution was 25 centavos each as their fixed deposits and continued to contribute 25 centavos each per meeting conducted. These pioneer 25 members composed of 5 teachers, 1 accountant, 1 retired municipal treasurer, and the rest were farmers and housekeepers.
The pioneer cooperators then re-echoed the training and seminars to the rest of the community and those interested to be members gave live chickens and chicks as their fixed deposits. The pioneer members accepted them, sold and converted them to cash for their fixed deposits.
Given the expanded membership, the board of directors, members of the different committees, and the management staff were elected and worked for the registration of the Kapangan Central Credit Cooperative Union, Inc. Then they started the credit services by releasing Php 200.00 with an interest of 1% per month. The pioneer officers worked for free. Ten years later, with their work dedication and continuous conduct of education of members, the Cooperative Union earns some surplus and the officers and workers of the cooperative received a token amount as honoraria.
On June 18, 1976, the registration of the Kapangan Central Credit Cooperative Union, Inc. was amended and re-registered as Kapangan Central Credit and Savings Cooperative. This same name was adopted and retained when policy changes occurred during the Marcos Regime, Aquino Administration concerning cooperatives. The latest was when the KCCSC re-registered with the Cooperative Development Authority. It introduced some amendment to its Articles of Cooperation and by-laws and this was the latest action performed by the cooperative officers even when the situation affected all human life.
The initial 25 centavos fixed deposits was increased to one Peso in 1980; five Pesos in 1990 and to ten Pesos in 2000. In the advent of the new Cooperative Law, the fixed deposit is now called share capital and the term deposits pertain to savings or time deposits.
Most of the fixed assets of the Cooperative were acquired through the accumulated funds generated through aggressive share capital build-up, savings, and through solicitation activities of the Cooperatives taking advantage of its good reputation built through the years. One such effort was the electrification of the cooperative building made possible by the donation of the Municipality of Kapangan in the amount of Php 20,000.00 and Php 70,000.00 from Atty. Robert Canuto during his term as one BENECO’s Directors. Also, the computer equipment of the Cooperative was donated by COOP-NATCCO a secondary cooperative.
The financial assets of the Cooperative continued to grow brought about by the continuing growth of membership and capital build-up of members. The number of cooperatives members reached 725 but gradually decline as a result of purging of the master list of members due to regulatory requirements in the treatment of members. The latest amendment was the removal of associate provisions and by increasing the minimum subscription as a result of the increase in Authorized Capitalization. In 2019, KCCSC was categorized as a small cooperative that posted P12.199 million assets. Based on the latest figure it graduated to become medium-size enterprise with an asset of P16.96 million as of December 31, 2020.
It was noted that except for the decrease in membership brought about by the cleansing of members registry especially minors and associate members, figures on share capital, savings deposit, net surplus, and volume of business had been increasing for the past 5 years.
The cooperative is currently affiliated with the Northern Luzon Federation of Cooperatives and Development Center (NORLU-CEDEC), a secondary cooperative operating in CAR and adjoining regions. (Reprinted from KCCSC Brief History with some added information).
