Those we can contain, we must, to stop price increases
By Orlando Ravanera / December
14, 2006
WHEN price of petroleum and that of electricity goes up,
so does all of the prices of everything else––from needles to 10-wheel trucks––so to speak, that requires
the use of energy as production input.
The spiraling cost of petroleum products is something that
is said to be beyond our control due mainly to the law of supply and demand. What with China’s seemingly insatiable
demand for oil needed by its mushrooming industries, there seems to be no stopping in the demand and so with the escalating
prices of petroleum products. The culprit is that law which states that when the supply is greater than demand, price is low;
but when the demand is greater than the supply, price goes up.
Talking of that law, I remember an anecdote in the brief
but interesting administration of then President Ramon Magsaysay, who one day asked his Cabinet why the price of rice had
gone up. When told that it was because of the Law of Supply and Demand, he immediately told his Finance Secretary to work
with Congress for the repeal of that law.
I see the joke not at all a negative portrayal of the Man
of the Masses. On the contrary, his track record as President had been characterized as pro-people and nationalistic, as he
gave credence to his motto that "those who have less in life should have more in law." I am quiet sure that if he were the
President today, he would do everything in his power to arrest the pattern of price increases, that is, if the factors that
are causing such increases are within control.
Now, the question that each one of us must reflect upon
is whether there are factors which are within our control to contain with regards to price increases. If in fact there are,
what are these?
My contention is that everything sold in this country is
doomed to pass at least five layers before it reaches the ultimate user, with each layer gaining from the flow. Take for example
the flow of the much-needed farm input, a bag of inorganic fertilizer needed for the production of rice, corn or what have
you. From the manufacturer, it goes to a distributor, then to a wholesaler in Manila, then to another wholesaler in the locality,
then to a retailer called the agricultural dealer and ultimately, sold to the poor farmer. This is the reason why the price
of a bag of Urea sold to a farmer costs as high as a thousand pesos but should in fact cost only five hundred pesos when bought
directly from the distributor.
The reverse is also true. The produce of the farmers are
actually bought cheap by the local traders but has to pass several layers of middlemen who would profit at the expense of
the poor farmers and consumers.
The formula now as sought by the cooperatives is to link
our farmers directly with the manufactures or distributors of fertilizers to erase the unscrupulous profiting of the middlemen.
Networking of farmer-producers directly with the consumers will forego the unnecessary intervention of local compradors who
are the ones immensely profiting from the back-breaking job of farming. All of these will be possible if done the cooperative
way.
As regards the rising cost of electricity, the same can
be avoided. Even as you read this column, the local government units are now exacting taxes from the Electric Cooperatives,
i.e. Moresco I and II, Fibeco, Buseco, Moelci I and II, Camelco, Laneco and all 114 electric cooperatives in the country.
This is because the Supreme Court has unanimously ruled, voting 14-0 in an En Banc decision, that these so called electric
cooperatives are not genuine cooperatives in contemplation of the Cooperative Code and therefore not anymore exempted from
paying taxes.
To be unfettered from the tax burden which will be as high
as 35 percent, the Supreme Court has admonished these so called ECs to practice cooperative principles by recognizing the
right of the member-consumers as joint owners of these multi-billion utilities and to register with the Cooperative Development
Authority. However, until now, not a single EC has done so. Instead, they have time and again, signified their intention to
pay taxes which they will just of course, pass-on to the poor consumers. Pity our poor consumers of electricity!
The cooperative journey of Atty. Mordino Cua
By Orland Ravanera / November
29, 2006
(Yesterday, Nov. 28, 2006, Atty. Mords Cua celebrated his birthday.
This column in my expression of salute to this person who has become a cooperative institution not just in the city and country
but in the Asia-Pacific Region.)
EVERY generation is faced with problems inherent in its time and circumstances
but there will always be leaders who will stand-up to the call to uproot the cause of the problems.
This was true the last century when Rizal and Bonifacio
rose up to the call by waging struggle against colonialism as our country then had been suffering from long years of oppression
and colonial rule. The charisma of these few brave men inspired the many to organize resistance giving birth to a sovereign
nation.
The advent of a new age saw our country beset with a new
set of problems deeply rooted in the poverty and powerlessness of the people. The challenges we face today may be different
from those faced by our ancestors a century ago.
But the guiding formula that relies on the collective strength
of the people has remained the same. For in truth, the people united can never be defeated. This was true a century ago when
the people collectively fought and dismantled successfully colonial rule. This is truer even today when the people are organizing
and mobilizing as they bind themselves to resist poverty through cooperativism.
The new millennium has produced leaders who are guided
by the same nationalistic feeling, intellectual process and courage of the heart. The clarity of their vision and ideas creates
the energy to put a dream to reality. As a favorite poet who put it aptly, "they have been a noontide in our midst, and their
vision has given us dreams to dream."
We are fortunate that we have such a man in our midst in
Cagayan de Oro who have been advancing universally accepted and time-honored principles to make life better for those in the
margins of development.
Nurtured in the Jesuit tradition to be "man for others,"
he has all these years put such spirit into action in his 52 years of advancing the tenets of cooperativism, in whose name
and for whose cause he has committed his life.
The word of Winston Churchill could well describe his cooperative
journey as a man "who gave so much for so little."
As a young lawyer in the ’50s, he opted to use his
legal prowess in serving the "least of his brethren," not minding the prestige and financial windfall lawyering could have
brought him. He together with a few kindred had pioneered the organization of the Ateneo Cooperative Credit Union which now
proudly stands as the First Community Cooperative (Ficco), one of the 10 billionaire cooperatives in the Philippines.
He has exemplified personal traits that have made him a
natural born leader to inspire people to unite, build coalition, take responsibilities for their communities and to craft
their own destiny.
He had trailblazed cooperativism in this part of the country
based on insights gained from the many international travels and exposures he had then. That many of the cooperatives he was
managing became international awardees was a logical conclusion of his sheer determination to practice and to banner cooperativism
as integral part of the Filipino life.
These cooperatives, be primaries or federations,
are now standing tall nationally and internationally as lasting monuments of his 52 years of cooperative journey. Thanks to
his fighting spirit, undaunted all these years despite the many travails he had encountered, including his arrest and incarceration
during the dark days of Martial Law for insulating cooperatives against political interventions by the cohorts of the dictatorship.
(To be continued next week)
The cooperative journey of Atty. Mordeno Cua (2)
By Orlando Ravanera / December 7, 2006
THE cooperative journey which reeled-off 52 years ago was a path then
"least taken" as it meant choosing to live life that would exact no less than the highest standard of commitment and dedication,
notwithstanding a great degree of sacrifice not only to himself but to his beloved wife and children as well.
Such being the case, what then prompted Mordino Rodriguez Cua, an
idealistic young lawyer then in the 1950s, to embark and trailblaze a missionary path of service which was then contrary to
prevailing social norm innate in a capitalistic set-up of individualism and materialism?
There is a saying which goes, "there is no grandeur sight in the world
than of a young man fired with a great purpose dominated by one unwavering aim. He is bound to win; the world stands to one
side and let him pass; it always makes way for the man with a will in him."
Indeed, for Mordino Cua, it was a journey inspired by a vision of
making life better for the needy, the oppressed and the downtrodden, as the Philippines then was described as a social volcano
ready to erupt.
Such social analysis stemmed from the highly stratified socio-economic
structure where the wealth and power were and still are concentrated in a few elite and where feudal rule seemed to be the
order of the day.
Fully aware of these socio-economic problems, he has pursued a development
line considered as an antidote to the cruel onslaught of poverty which called for the people binding themselves together to
craft their own destiny by mobilizing their collective energies and potentials and in effect, establish a new societal order
that is founded on the time-honored principles of social justice, equity, popular participation and sustainable development.
That from out of the darkness of poverty and social inequities, a
new societal order can loom through cooperativism as a vehicle of social transformation.
In reading his autobiography contained in a two-volume book called,
"My Cooperative Journey," Atty Mordino Cua has rewind the "tape of time" for the present generation to see how Cagayan de
Oro was during his youth in the 1930s and 1940s.
He had narrated in detail his experiences as a student of then Ateneo
de Cagayan as he imbibed not only knowledge but also important values such as truth, justice and the spirit of service aptly
captured in the Atenean spirit of being "men and women for others."
For all past and present students of Xavier University, the book is
a must reading as it showcased its pioneering history, giving us some interesting insights of great personalities such as
Fr. William Masterson, SJ now considered a legend as he founded SEARSOLIN and the first Jesuit-run College of Agriculture
throughout the world.
For the 85,000 members of the billionaire First Community Cooperative
or FICCO, you may be astonished to know that when the cooperative began 52-years ago as the Ateneo Cooperative Credit Union
(ACCU) with Atty. Cua as its first Managing Director, it started only with a few hundred of pesos contributed by its 320 members.
More than pioneering credit unions successfully in this part of the
country for which he had gained international recognition, he had set in motion an important shift in the cooperative movement
where human resource development or investing in people should be the priority.
Such was the raizon d etre of the establishment of the Southern Philippine
Education Training Center (SPECC) of which he was the first Chairman.
Firmly believing that only the people can craft their own destiny
to be in the mainstream of development processes, he had frontlined the networking of all primary cooperatives which formed
the Mindanao Association of Self-help Societies (MASS).
Humble as he is, the book does not fully give justice to the achievement
of the man which I considered res ipsa loquitor (his life of service not his words can speak well of himself already).
All told, his Cooperative Journey is not just a chronicle of important
events; most importantly, it speaks of a journey in life, one that belongs to a higher and more sublime realm.
It is a journey that in itself has created a strong social force,
the silent building of the power of the people long before such term became popular at EDSA.
It is a travel in search of ideas, approaches and strategies to fine-tune
and make more relevant in contemporary times Philippine cooperativism to be a powerful tool to change formidable rigid structures
of elitism, materialism and oppression in a highly stratified society.
For a great man that he truly is, his cooperative journey is in fact
a triumph of the human spirit – for the greater glory of God. My salute to Atty. Mordino R. Cua.
All for the love of Gaia
By Orland Ravanera / Novermber
22, 2006
ARMED with "bolo," they ran from one hill to another in
the uplands of Cagayan de Oro, not minding the excruciating heat of the sun. They first cleared the land of weeds, then, with
silent rage, aimed their sharp "weapon" to their target.
Their target is the denuded land and their aim is to dig
a hole, big enough to accommodate the seedlings to be planted. This year alone, they have planted thousands of seedlings and
propagules, as they not only limit their tree-planting activities in the denuded uplands but in the coastal areas as well
to rehabilitate the impaired mangrove areas.
They are the student-cooperators of Cagayan de Oro National
High School under the able leadership of their mentor-adviser, Ms. Lydia Tubilla. They are being molded in the bosom of cooperativism,
anchored on the time-honored and universally-accepted principles of participation and democratic control. Their early entry
into the beautiful world of cooperativism has given them the venue to exercise their societal and environmental concerns.
It has been said that "we have not inherited the Gaia (Mother
Earth) from our parents, but we owe it to our children; but at the rate we have plundered Gaia, we have robbed them of their
future inheritance."
Gaia is only ours to protect for the coming generations.
As stewards of God’s creation, we have grossly failed. The denuded hills, the blighted land, the polluted seas, the
dried-up rivers – these are monuments of shame of how neglectful we have been.
In 1983, a Satellite Map shows that we had some 37,000
hectares forest-covered area lying in the watersheds of Cagayan de Oro. Today, only 2,000 hectares remain. The local environmental
scenario is but a reflection of a national environmental tragedy because a century or so ago, the Philippines had some 17
million hectares of dipterocarp forest. Today, it is down to less than 500,000 hectares.
Decimating our tropical forest does not only mean the tremendous
loss of our biodiversity, the extinction of some endemic species before they were even discovered. The massive cutting of
deeply-rooted trees which had been there for thousands of years have resulted to the irreversible loss of top soil, that had
been washed to the rivers, then to the bays, forming as silts which in turn damaged coral reefs.
Today, the sins of a few greedy loggers have been visited
upon our people as the fury of nature is now upon us. We had the Ormoc tragedy in 1991 when the roaring flash floods killed
some 8,000 people overnight. That should have given us a clear warning already but the cuttings continue unabatedly.
The ecological tragedies have now worsened, not only limited
to floodings but to the crumbling of denuded mountains that would erase from the face of the earth a whole community of people,
based on the Negros’ Experience. Indeed, we have scarred Gaia so badly, both by our doing and mis-doing.
Today, we need crusaders to ease the pain of Gaia, heroes
of the times whom we have never managed to become. The student-cooperators of the Cagayan de Oro National High School are
showing us the way. To these young nature’s crusaders, our firm salute and warm embrace.
To those who are sacrificing Gaia to the altar of greed
and profit, take heed of this ecological warning, "only when you have cut the last tree, only when you have caught the last
fish, only when you have polluted the last sea and dried up the last river, only then that you will realize, that you cannot
eat your money."
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