DISOP NATIONAL PROGRAM OFFICER'S VISITED TO CLAD CALUBIAN

Last May 13-14 the National Program Officer of DISOP Philippines in the person of Mr. Conrado "Condring" Brigoli visited DISOP/CLAD partners in the Municipality of Calubian. The first cooperative visited was the Nipa-Calubian Credit Cooperative (NiCalCCo) which is located on the first Brgy adjacent to the Municipality of Leyte. Then the group proceeded to the next Brgy with the second visited cooperative, the Sr San Roque Credit Cooperative of Brgy Ul-og. The morning ended with a lunch at Brgy Ferdinand where the Katilingbanon Multipurpose Cooperative is located. Few suggestions such as expansion of coop services should be undertaken by coop being a multi-purpose one. The livelihood visited in this area include the Hog raising and the Boat Making project.

In the afternoon, the group proceeded to Petrolio Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative (PETFA MPC)in Brgy Petrolio. After inspecting the consumer store established with DISOP funds' assistance, the group proceeded to the area covered by the Calubian Agri-Products Producers Association/Cooperative. There were clusters of vegetable farms established by last year's season long training on vegetable commercialization participants especially the farm of Roberto Dillo of Brgy Tagharigue and Mr. Capin of Brgy Guadalupe. Then the first day of the visit ended.

The second day activities were concentrated on the cooperatives situated on the northern part of the municipality. In the morning, a cluster meeting consisting of the members of the Villanueva Credit Cooperative of Brgy Villanueva, Kabicolan Credit Cooperative of Sitio Kabicolan and Garrido Credit Cooperative of Brgy Garrido was conducted. Consultations were done by soliciting problems encountered by managing these different cooperatives and also sharing experiences from the more successful coops.

In the afternoon, the group's last stop was in Brgy Abanilla where the St Vincent Credit Cooperative was located. Different members of this cooperative had presented their different livelihood projects which vary from fish vending, tuba trading, hog raising among others. The visit ended with consultation presenting initial findings of Mr Brigoli to the CLAD Management and Staff.

DISOP-CLAD FAMILY DAY

One important event that CLAD has conducted was to gather if not all but the majority of the members of the DISOP/CLAD Family. The DISOP/CLAD Family day was conducted first last December 2006 and was conducted again two years after which was held last December 13, 2008 at Lotus Beach in Brgy Abanilla. CLAD management has tried to hold this event once in every two years so that the direct family members of the project beneficiaries will feel that they are also involved with the project by giving them importance during the said event.

The primary objective of the activity was to evaluate the different cooperatives and BECs about the status of the DISOP programs which were implemented by them. The strategy of the evaluation was by way of comparing their respective cooperatives to the different plants in the surroundings. The self-evaluation was presented by their respective chairmen. Majority of the cooperatives compared their group with Euphorbia ornamental plants. According to them, their cooperatives were just so similar with this plant in the sense that the plant has many thorns. They felt that cooperative organization in its early phase has many obstacles and hardship especially that these cooperatives are in the rural areas. Many elected officers lack the capability and learnings on how to properly manage their coops. One of the most pressing problem they encountered is on the proper records keeping and bookkeeping.

The euphorbia plant also bears beautiful flowers of different colors and sizes. They said that these flowers represent the gains of organizing their cooperatives; the learnings on coop management and development, the capital and savings generated and the different livelihood projects that the coop members had established. The different sizes of the flowers represent the different degree of progress and development that these different coops had undertaken. The celebration ended with games and dancing and awarding of prizes to the winners.

WANTED: SHELL HANDICRAFT EXPERTS!

One of the marine products which is uniquely abundant within the brackish water of Calubian is the Capiz shell. This precious shell is commonly used as handicraft materials which is utilized in christmas decors, lanterns and christmas lights. It is also used in producing beautiful and elegant lampshades which are commonly utilized as internal decorations in most common restaurants and five star hotels.

Although abundant in the area, where tons and tons of this raw materials had been transported to Metro Manila at a very minimal price, local populace can not convert this raw materials into a very saleable finished product due to lack of technology. The members of the three cooperatives located at Brgy Nipa, Ul-og and F. E. Marcos showed their interest to learn the technology and these cooperatives are willing to invest in this project.

I, being the CLAD Operation Coordinator had tried to contact some experts who could serve as a resource person to do the hands-on training on this product but I could not find one within the locality. I had even contacted DTI and DOST of Region VIII wether they had experts from their pool of trainors but with no avail.

I therefore would like to appeal for those who would be able to drop by this site and know someone who is an experts on Capiz shell utilization into various handicrafts such as lampshades, christmas decors and lights and others, please contact my e-mail ad at agustindignos@yahoo.com or send a text message or call my cell phone at 09183957027 or to my globelines at (053) 5492287. Your information and referral will be much valuable to us.

CHEERS TO COOPS SUCCESS. . . .

Starting from February to March CLAD Management and Staff are very much busy attending General Assembly meetings of the different assisted and partner cooperatives and associations. This happened since CLAD wanted that all its coop partners should comply to the basic requirements set by the CDA as stipulated in its CDA Rules and Regulations that all cooperatives should conduct at least once in every year a General Assembly Meeting which will be held within the period of 90 days at the end of coop fiscal year.

This year, Mr Agustin Dignos, CLAD Chief Operations Officer and Operation Coordinator of DISOP assisted projects served as guest speaker whose role is to always encourage the member-cooperators to be always participative and vigilant to whatever activities the cooperative is doing. Members' active involvement in every coop affairs is one important key ingredient for the coop to succeed. According to him, there could be no Legacy Case and there should never have a similar case in cooperative if an only if members will always find time in attending Coop General Assembly Meetings. General Assembly Meeting, although cooperatives are required to conduct once a year only, is one of the most important activity that coop members should not miss since this activity would highlight the cooperative performance for the past year.

The results of the different cooperative operations are very much satisfying since cooperatives are giving their members a return on their investment ranging from 20 to 90 percent. This happened since most small cooperatives operate in a very low expenditure budget since majority of the members of the management staff are in voluntary basis which is good for starting coops.

SECOND PHASE OF DISOP PROJECT IN CALUBIAN ON THE GO!!!

The project entitled "Capability building and development of agricultural and coastal associations in Calubian, Province of Leyte" is on its second phase and is now under the implementation and management of CLAD, Inc. The project which focused originally to the five BEC Communities which were converted into cooperatives which include the communities in the following barangays; Nipa, Ul-og, F.E. Marcos, Villanueva including its Sitio Kabicolan has now widened its horizon and expanded its coverage to include the existing Petrolio Farmers Multi-purpose Cooperative (PET-FA MPC) of Brgy Petrolio and the cooperatives namely Garrido Multipurpose Cooperative of Brgy Garrido, St. Vincent Credit Cooperative of Brgy Abanilla and the Calubian Agri-Products Producers Association/Cooperative of Brgy Tagharigue.

Under CLAD's management, DISOP loan assistance is not anymore exclusive to BEC members only. Since membership of cooperatives is non-sectarian and is open to any person regardless of religion and its political affiliation, CLAD management had also widened its coverage of extending DISOP funds to the general membership of the cooperative. Does providing equal opportunities to every marginal farmers and fisherfolks to develop their own livelihood enterprise.

There are several enterprises that members of the different cooperatives had ventured ranging from sari-sari store, hog raising, fishing and farming among others. One of the sector which has been given due consideration by CLAD management and with a considerable support extended by the Local Government Unit of Calubian through its Local Chief Executive Hon. Hazel Po was the High Valued Commercial Crop or simply the Vegetable Commercialization. One of the cooperative which has been a recipient of LGU's assistance was the Calibuan Agri-Products Producers Cooperative of Brgy Tagharigue (see photo above showing the officers and members of the cooperative during its General Assembly Meeting in February this year). Last year, CLAD with LGU assitance had conducted a Season-Long Seminar/Training on Vegetable Commercialization which culminated on July 17 of 2008 marking the first year anniversary of CLAD's existence.