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.