BELGIAN AMBASSADOR VISITED CALUBIAN

September 25, 2007 was one of the lucky days for the cooperative movement in the Municipality of Calubian, Province of Leyte, Philippines. This was the day when a team composed of NGOs which are the nationwide partners of DISOP visited the municipality. The team's visit was focused on the enterprises conducted by the members of the different cooperatives oraganized by CLAD and with the assistance of DISOP Philippines, a Belgian NGO which is based in Tacloban City, Philippines.

With Belgian Ambassador to the Philippines Hon. Gregoire Vardakis heading the team and was accompanied by Mr. Werner Caekelbergh, DISOP Asia-desk incharge and Mrs Kathleen Deckmyn-Cordero, DISOP Philippines and South East Asia coordinator, the team was welcomed by Hon Hazel "Dayday" Po, Calubian municipal mayor and Fr. Arnold Cordeta, the CLAD Executive Director(see photo above).

The Nipa-Calubian Credit Cooperative (NiCalCCo) located at Brgy Nipa, Calubian, Leyte was the first cooperative visited by the team. Majority of the recipients of the program were engaged in backyard hog raising project. Other projects include fishing, farming, buy & sell among others. The Brgy Nipa was alo the active partner of CLAD and SAC in their organic farming promotion and was the adoptor of rice organic farming program. The members of the NiCALCCo were very inspired by the visit and have shown their hospitability by serving delicious and native delicacies to the visitors.

The next stop was at Sr. San Roque Credit Cooperative at Brgy Ul-og. Before visiting the different enterprises of the members, a ceremonial tree planting was conducted infront of the Coop Office with Hon. Vardakis led the activities. The first enterprise visited was the processing of Barinday shells at Mrs. Leonisa Torrejos' residence. The process is separating meat and the shells through blanching in controlled temperature. Frozen shell meat which is their end product are sold to the exporter at a higher price giving the processor a higher profit margin. Other projects undertaken by the members of this cooperative include boat making, fishing and farming, buy & sell, backyard and others.

The last cooperative visited which is located in the southern part of the municiaplity was the Katilingbanon Multi-purpose Cooperative situated in Brgy. F.E. Marcos. Among the five cooperatives organized and assisted, the Katilingbanon have shown its potential to grow in a faster pace. With members much more knowledgeable in cooperative principles and majority are college level, the coop leaders and members of the management staff had easily adopted the principles and practices taught to them. In fact, this cooperated had posted the highest in terms of recruitment of new members and the highest in terms of interest earnings. The following enterprises undertaken by its members included backyard hog raising, sarisari store, farming and fishing and others.

Before proceeding to the northern cooperatives, the team had their lunch at the Lotus Beach situated at Brgy Abanilla/Uson. Several presentations were given by the selected members of the different cooperatives. Speeches were also delivered from the different executives; in behalf of the Diocese of Naval, His Eminence Felomino Bactol delivered the message thanking the Belgian Government/NGO in supporting project in his Diocese; in behalf of the municipality, Hon Hazel R. Po expressed her support to the program while Hon Vardakis expressed his gratitude of a very warm welcome to his visit in the municipality.

The last two cooperatives visited were located at Brgy Villanueva, the Villanueva Credit cooperative situated at Brgy Villanueva proper and the Kabicolan Credit Cooperative at Sitio Kabicolan of the same barangay. Majority of their members were engaged in backyard hog fattening projects.