The Philippine Cooperative Movement: Gearing towards People Empowerment through NGO/PO Initiatives

Abstract

The 1986 People Power Revolution has ushered in new avenues in the Philippine popular movement to fight poverty and underdevelopment via cooperatives. Actually, the cooperative concept of mutual assistance is not alien to the Filipino people who are imbued with the bayanihan spirit. The rise of cooperatives is likewise attributable to the government’s inefficiency in delivery of basic needs, the active involvement of NGOs and Pos in cooperativism and the creation of coop federations. These crucial players fill up the vacuum the state has left in the following aspects: access to capital, technical and infrastructural resources, marketing of products and self management. The populat movement has not only ensured the success of the economic endeavor but also introduced a political dimension through advocacy work in order to create a healthy environment for the coop’s economic ventures. Among the issues addressed by such advocacy work are agrarian reform, environment protection and rural development. Thus, the Philippine coop movement’s development agendum aims to confront both the major economic and political concerns of the society