Priest’s good deed 39 years ago still yields fruits
By Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 17:34:00 01/12/2008
MANILA, Philippines--BIG BANKS and other financial companies tried putting up a branch in the town of Hinunangan in Southern Leyte, but they all eventually gave up and left.
They had no choice because the fourth class town’s residents chose to put their money in the Sts. Peter and Paul Multipurpose Cooperative that they can rightly call their own.
From a simple savings and loan association put up by former parish priest Fr. Frederick Wakeham in 1968, Sts. Peter and Paul has grown to become the town’s dominant financial and commercial institution with over P104 million in assets generated from the contributions of over 2,000 regular members—mostly farmers and fisherfolk.
These assets include a business center in front of the public market, which houses the cooperative’s grocery and hardware stores, as well as a training facility that can accommodate 400 people, 11-room pension house and grains center, reputedly the biggest in Southern Leyte, which has 19 municipalities.
Sts. Peter and Paul with its full-time staff of 28 likewise oversees thriving palay production and hog fattening businesses in the town and is firming up plans to put up branches in the other municipalities because of the clamor of residents there to join the cooperative.
That Sts. Peter and Paul was able to grow its business from a starting capital of just P800 in 1968 to over P26 million today has earned for it numerous awards from institutions such as the Land Bank of the Philippines, the Department of Agriculture and the Cooperative Development Authority.
Landbank assistant vice president Agustin Frederick A. Apilado said Landbank has a soft spot for cooperatives because of their “vital role in promoting countryside development.”
“We consider them partners through which we course our financial and technical support to the farmers, fisherfolk, small and medium scale enterprises and other priority sectors,” Apilado added.
Landbank recognized Sts. Peter and Paul so many times that the cooperative was elevated to the bank’s Hall of Fame in 2004, making it one of the best cooperatives in the Philippines under the agriculture-based category.
Sts. Peter and Paul chair Honorato O. Vacal Jr. tells the Inquirer in an interview, however, that the road to success has not been without detours, bumps and even dead ends.
Vacal explains that like many other cooperatives, Sts. Peter and Paul had its bouts with mismanagement, massive withdrawals and loan delinquency. There were even times when the cooperative came close to shutting down because of financial difficulties.
He, however, says that the spirit of cooperativism managed to shine through despite the difficulties and had helped pull the institution from the brink of bankruptcy.
And Sts. Peter and Paul emerged from these trials stronger and better equipped than before. Members and management learned from the often costly mistakes.
Vacal says that to solve the problem with delinquency, for instance, the cooperative has put in place 28 barangay coordinators given the task of collecting loan payments from the members in 40 barangays.
These coordinators, who go as far as knocking on each house in remote areas to collect payments, also have the responsibility of informing the members about the latest developments in the cooperative, including new products on sale in the hardware and the latest milling charge at the grains center.
“We also conduct an owners’ meeting twice a year and a general assembly once a year to discuss the cooperative’s direction and to encourage the active participation of the members,” Vacal says in a mix of Filipino and Bisaya, “if there is one secret to the success of the cooperative, it is the participation of the members.”
Today, the cooperative boasts of a loan repayment rate of 92 percent, also because the cooperative is careful to grant loans only to those who can demonstrate their ability and willingness to pay back.
Members can tap the cooperative for education, salary, emergency, housing, vehicle, appliance and insurance loans of up to P500,000 that carry an interest of about 12 percent a year, compared to 18 percent charged by other institutions.
In 2006, members got back a dividend of 8 percent and a patronage refund of 10 percent of their loan payments.
Vacal says the dividend and the financial assistance from the cooperative have enabled members to grow their businesses—like rice production, piggery, poultry and trading—send their children to school and put up their houses.
He says this is why the cooperative gets an average of 10 new members a month.
All they had to do was put in capital of P1,000 and go to a pre-membership seminar designed to inculcate in them the value of paying loans as they fall due for the good of the cooperative.
“What we tell them is that the money they borrow is money from other people, so they have to pay,” Vacal says.
The cooperative, he adds, still has a lot of room to grow as only about 2,000 of the 14,000 voting adults in Hinunangan are members.
“What we want is for everybody in town to become a member and we want quality members, those who will patronize the cooperative’s services, will regularly pay and make a regular deposit,” he says.
And the list of services keeps on growing.
As the cooperative nears its 40th anniversary, Vacal says there are plans for the cooperative to go into cable television operation and expand abaca and coffee plantations for the good of the members and the community.
Not bad indeed for a cooperative that traces its beginnings to a church office.
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