How to Liberate the Filipinos from Oligarchical Control?
“Where a few have much too much and the many who are poor have much too little, we will be facing circumstances horrible even to contemplate.”
Stating emphatically the above quotation, then Chairman of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), Sec. Roberto “Obet” Pagdanganan described the very mandate of the CDA which is the urgency of transforming through cooperativism a highly-skewed societal order where only 300 oligarchs/cartel control the economy. It was in that context that when I took over the CDA Chairmanship, I truly believe that it is only by harnessing the collective power of the people where social change can be had through peaceful and legal means. Such truism is categorically declared in Chapter 14, Art. 12 of the 1987 Constitution that, “The State shall promote cooperativism as instrument of social justice, equity and economic development.” We saluted then our delegate from Cagayan de Oro for the authorship of that amazing provision in the 1987 Constitution who later was elected as Senator, Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, who can aptly be described as the “Father of Cooperativism” for his cooperative wisdom and service-oriented performance. I remember those days when he who would invite me for dinner in his residence, encouraging me to passionately promote the social justice essence of cooperativism when I became CDA Chairman. Yes, I assured him that with a firm commitment to advance transformative cooperatives for people, planet, prosperity and peace for social change. Indeed, for those who have struggled and sacrificed for it, social change has been so elusive all these years despite 14 years of Martial Law and two people-powered revolutions as the systems and structure breeding poverty are still as formidable as ever. It was our contention then as emphasized to me by the good Senator “Nene” who later passed-away that there Is no need for “violent extremism” as there is no greater painful sight on earth than Filipinos killing co-Filipinos to liberate the poor and the oppressed from social injustice and poverty. That Constitutional declaration by harnessing the collective power of the people to draw them into the mainstream of development processes should be advanced by the people themselves as there are now more than 20,000 cooperatives with some 20 million members.
To these existing cooperatives, let notice be served to one and all the very essence of cooperativism which is members-owned, value-based & philosophy-driven and sustainability as emphasized then by Sen. Nene in our conversations. As members-owned, no one shall be left behind, fired with compassion to serve the least of our brethren. Service is the cooperatives’ reason for being, the reason why the State gives the cooperatives the highest privilege of being tax-exempt. For the individual member, human dignity is the highest value and pursuit of public welfare is the highest collective value, since life is holy. In this age when humanity is in survival mode because of environmental catastrophe brought about by ecological unsustainability through climate crisis, cooperativism is indeed an idea that has come of age in advancing the essence of sustainability. Without sustainability, we cannot survive if we keep working against nature. We must learn to live in harmony with nature. When an idea has come of age, no force on earth can stop it. Of the 8 billion people on earth now, one billion are cooperative members whose collective power and ethical action can become the much-needed catalyst of change for earth’s survival, that is, if these members will follow the very essence (DNA) of cooperativism on sustainability NOT JUST ON THE BUSSINESS ASPECT in line with the oligarchs’ growth-at-all-cost development strategy.
It has become of utmost imperative for the cooperatives to be true to the essence of cooperativism to be transformative for people, planet, prosperity and peace, the theme of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. As underscored then by CDA Chairman Obet that if social change continues to be so elusive all these years, “we might be facing circumstances horrible even to contemplate.” Such horrible consequences are now manifested glaringly as dehumanizing poverty and hunger continue to waggle its ugly head making it a “theft” to many a child’s dream. These dreadful social realities aggravated by horrible social injustices especially committed against the 17 million Indigenous Peoples are exacerbated now by patronage politics, making the people more socially dependent and powerless. We must now realize that the contemporaneous economic paradigm is anchored on growth-at-all-cost development strategies that have degraded and heavily damaged our ecological base and consigning the many to live in the slum areas, digging garbage for left-overs. Growth for what and for whom?
In the light of the present ecological crisis we are now experiencing, we should now do some reflections with reference to the above-mentioned warning that have not been taken heed at all even by the cooperatives as they are so engrossed only in maximizing profit, maximizing consumer goods and never on maximizing values. Have not the loggers decimated our dipterocarp forest that had transformed a beautiful paradise into hell? After losing our wealth above the ground, have not illegal miners wrought havoc to our ecosystems through massive illegal mining operations that killed rivers and bays through massive siltation? Don’t you know that in 2014 when we arrested 5 Chinese illegal miners carrying only tourist visa but heavily equipped with Ak-47 were only detained for one week in prison and were even escorted back to China by an elected Kagawad? Very evident and there are proofs that some elected officials are involved in illegal mining operations in connivance with big time illegal Koreans & Chinese miners using tens of million-peso worth of heavy equipment (I.e., buck-hoes & bulldozers), earning not only millions but billions of pesos. Have not powerful foreign investors in cahoots with powers-that-be displaced our Indigenous Peoples by massively grabbing their ancestral domain as their enrichment means the displacement and impoverishment of the IPs? Have costly agricultural technologies tied-up to the use of heavy chemicals not continuously promoted though there are more ecologically sustainable ways of farming? And isn’t it that all these are done in the name of economic growth, but for what and for whom? Indeed, the words growth and development are the most abused terms now-a-days especially during this period of “big circus” called elections because the day-to-day life of the Filipinos speaks otherwise.
It behooves upon us now to examine the dominant paradigm which should have been replaced by the essence of cooperativism but did not happen because the oligarchs are not only in control economically but also politically. Such is being pursued in cahoots with the powers-that-be and in the name of growth-at-all-cost paradigm but has only been successful in inflicting massive destruction to the ecosystems, our very means to life and to the impoverishment of our people. That kind of development is like a giant-off-balance. So as not to fall, it has to run. And in running, it destroys everything it finds in its path, i.e., rivers bays, forests, agricultural lands many of which are now eliminated, the reason why we have lost our food security. That global economic paradigm continues building military arsenals especially by the modern-day American Imperialism that can kill humanity forty-times over when nuclear war erupts. In fact, some of these are in our country hiddenly established that if ever war erupts, our country will be the first target. Indeed, that paradigm follows trickle-down approach described that as if we allow sparrows to pick on something that has already passed the digestive tracts of cattle.
Let this truism reverberate now especially to the 20 thousand cooperatives nation-wide, even better to the one billion members worldwide, that indeed cooperatives’ time has come to advance the very essence of cooperativism as envisioned by the Father of Cooperatives in this country, the late Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel who had already leaped-up to the Great Beyond but will forever remain in our heart. Cooperatives’ primary essence is sustainability and service-oriented, thus, we cannot continue on pursuing the unsustainable pattern of resource exploitation that only survives by whetting the consumerist appetite that has produced a throw-away materialist, consumerist society. The message has always been, spend, buy this, buy that, so that you will be happy. As you spend the economy will prosper, then, you will have more money. And because you have more money, you can buy this and buy more and more. What to buy? All that the modern technologies can offer in the non-stop exploitation of our non-renewable resources from the bosom of Mother Earth. That is the meaning of extractive and consumerist. That is the meaning of the money-must-grow principle. It is “PACMAN-LIKE” diabolical monster gulping everything it sees – the forest, mega-diversity, the ozone layer, our marine life, our very rich wealth below the ground and even all life forms on earth. Grow, grow, grow but for what and for whom? Thus, cooperatives wake-up!
It is our primary task to correct social wrongs and trailblaze a paradigm shift where the people should be in control especially of utilities like electricity, land and water which are means to life and must be owned, controlled and managed by member-consumer-owners themselves not by a few powerful oligarchs. That was primary in the mindset of no less than Sen. Nene to rectify the existence of so-called Electric Cooperatives (ECs) which are cooperatives in name only. These so-called Electric Cooperatives do not follow the time-honored and universally-accepted cooperative principles and values, based on the 2003 landmark Supreme Court decision penned by Justice Mariano del Castillo in the case of PHILRICA vs. Dept. of Finance. That amazing decision included an order for concerned agencies of government to correct such social wrong, especially to CDA being the sole registering agency of all types of cooperatives. During my stint as CDA Chairman I did my best to rectify such fallacy on the existence of so-called ECs but I was crucified no end by those who cannot moderate their greed, in cahoots with powers-that-be, all for doing my job, not to mention two attempts to my life but miraculously survived as I could have been the 10th victim after nine co-advocates had already been murdered. Are you still wondering why after all these years, the fallacy on the existence of these 120 ECs in the country has never been rectified to the detriment of some 13 million member-consumer-owners (MCOs)? Don’t you know that the 13 million MCOs have already a combined capital shares of more than a trillion pesos but until now are not recognized as capital shares. Such is a great travesty of rural electrification initiated in the Sixties by Dept. of Energy Secretary Emmanuel Pelaez and a group of well-known Senators (i.e., Hon. Senators Tanada and Diokno) and Congressmen who unanimously voted for cooperativism as a means of rural electrification as electricity is a means to life and must be owned, managed and under the control of the MCOs through cooperativism. Such truism was patterned to ECs existing in other countries especially in the USA where each MCO family receives monthly patronage refund including free hospitalization and scholarship. But the oligarchs don’t want this to happen in our country as they cannot moderate their greed. Such is Res Ipsa Loquitor (the thing speaks for itself) as water and electric utilities are owned, controlled and managed by the powerful cartels and oligarchs. The cooperative family in our country should now be concerned as it is their essence to promote social justice as constitutionally mandated. Unless this great social injustice in the existence of some 120 Electric Cooperatives with some 13 million MCOs with a mass base of some 65 million Filipinos in a family of five is rectified, no way can our people be liberated from poverty and oligarchical control. Development and economic growth should be for the people not for the oligarchs! MGA KOOPERATIBA GISING NA PO, MAXOMIZE VALUES NOT PROFIT AS SERVICE IS YOUR ESSENCE, THE REASON WHY YOU ARE GIVEN THE HIGHEST PRIVILEGE OF TAX EXEMPTION! With your critical mass of some 20 million members, cooperatives loom as the only liberating force against oligarchical control based on its time-honored and universally-accepted cooperative principles and values!
