Evasco to Coops: stay independent

from the influence of politicians

TAGBILARAN CITY, Oct. 8 (PIA)--Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. on Friday calls on cooperatives to stay independent from the influence of politicians.

Evasco was the keynote speaker on the second day of the 3rd Central Visayas Cooperative Congress on October 5-7, 2017 at the Bohol Tropics Resort, this city hosted by the Province of Bohol.

Bearing the theme, “In Cooperativism, All Are Included, No One Should Be Left Behind,” the congress was attended by five hundred members of cooperatives and government agencies in the region, as well as officials from Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), Regional Cooperative Development Council (RCDC) and national government agencies.

“I am advocating that cooperatives should be shielded from political influence because the moment you let politics get into the cooperative, that is the start of its downfall,” Evasco said.

He added that cooperatives should stand on its own. It should be geared towards collective effort, a cooperative effort towards getting what belongs to the members.

Evasco considered cooperativism as the root, the source of pro-people programs and one of which is the CDA.

Not just because CDA is under his office, Evasco said that he really believe in the theory of cooperativism.

With this, he congratulated all the members and officers of all the cooperatives in Central Visayas because they initiated and sustained, despite all the obstacles and hindrances offered by capitalism.

Meanwhile, CDA Chairman Orlando Ravanera bared that there are 26,000 coops in the country and 1,770 in Bohol. 

These employ 2 million indirect and 500,000 direct jobs. But only 82% of the 26,000 are considered compliant cooperatives, the CDA said.

October of every year is a celebration of Cooperative Month in the Philippines pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 493, series of 2003. 

The 2017 Cooperative Month has a theme “Cooperatives: Empowering the Poor and the Vulnerable Towards Job Creation and Poverty Eradication”. (ecb/PIA7-Bohol)

3rd CV Coop Congress. Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. calls on cooperatives to stay independent from the influence of politicians during the second day of the 3rd Central Visayas Cooperative Congress on October 6 at the Bohol Tropics Resort where he was the keynote speaker. Bearing the theme, “In Cooperativism, All Are Included, No One Should Be Left Behind,” the congress was hosted by the Province of Bohol. (ecb/PIA7-Bohol)