CDA Charter passed into law
After 29 years under Republic Act 6939, the CDA now has a new Charter. Republic Act No. 11364, or the Cooperative Development Authority Charter of 2019, was finally signed into law on 8 August 2019. Constantly in consultation with co-op leaders all over the country, legislators the House Committee on Cooperative Development chaired by AGAP Rep. Geron and COOP-NATCCO Partylist Representatives Sabiniano Canama and Anthony Bravo authored the House Version.
After 29 years under Republic Act 6939, the CDA now has a new Charter. Republic Act No. 11364, or the Cooperative Development Authority Charter of 2019, was finally signed into law on 8 August 2019.
Constantly in consultation with co-op leaders all over the country, legislators the House Committee on Cooperative Development chaired by AGAP Rep. Geron and COOP-NATCCO Partylist Representatives Sabiniano Canama and Anthony Bravo authored the House Version.
Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri, who chairs the Senate Committee on Cooperatives, co-authored and sponsored the Senate version of the CDA Charter of 2019 in supplement to the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008.
The CDA was created by RA 6939 which was signed into law by then President Cory Aquino. RA 11364 repeals RA 6939 and adds more ‘teeth’ to the CDA.
“This will respond to the clamor of the cooperative sector, to make the Cooperative Development Authority more responsive to the needs of the sector and further promote cooperativism as an effective tool in achieving inclusive growth,” Zubiri said of the law.
The CDA Charter of 2018 is a long-overdue amendment of the original charter passed in 1990. This revised charter introduces institutional reforms that will strengthen the CDA and allow it to more effectively serve the sector. Notably, the composition of the Board has been modified. Where the old charter called for a Board of Administrators made up of two representatives each from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the new charter mandates instead the creation of a Board of Directors. Each director will represent a cluster of cooperatives instead of a region. Candidates for directorship must have at least five years of professional experience as officers of a cooperative, and they are to represent the following cooperative sectors:
1. Credit and financial services, banking, and insurance;
2. Consumers, marketing, producers, and logistics;
3. Human services: health, housing, workers, and labor service;
4. Education and advocacy;
5. Agriculture, agrarian, aquaculture, farmers, dairy, and fisherfolk;
6. Public utilities: electricity, water, communications, and transport.
With a Board of Directors composed of a Chairperson and 6 representatives from the cooperative sector itself, the charter will strengthen the partnership between the CDA and the cooperative sector in allowing for stronger consultative mechanisms between them. This is also seen as a way to stop political appointees.
Under the charter, the Board will also now strictly function as a policy-making body, as well as an adjudicating body with regard to cases brought before them. They are to focus on this function, and no longer exercise administrative or managerial functions over the affairs of the CDA–a responsibility that will be handed over to an Administrator who functions like an executive director in other government agencies. “Bilang mga adjudicators, ang CDA Board of Directors ay mabilis ng makapagdesisyon sa mga intra at inter-cooperative disputes, makakapagpataw na sila ng mga parusa sa mga nagkakamaling kooperatiba at umaksyon o kanselahin ang rehistro ng mga nagpapanggap na kooperatiba na kadalasang binibiktima ay ang mga mahihirap nating mga kababayan,” Zubiri added.
To further open the lines of communication with the sector, the charter shall also recognize sectoral apex organizations and a national alliance of cooperatives. These groups shall serve as the overall consultative and coordinating body with the CDA. “As its developmental functions, the CDA can provide technical support and market linkages especially to start-up cooperatives,” Senator Zubiri said. “I thank President Rodrigo Duterte for signing the law despite the last ditch efforts of some vested interests to block its enactment into law,” Zubiri also said.
For the first time, a “sectoral apex organization” is mentioned. PCC will work on legitimizing itself as the apex referred to. This will be done in the IRR.
There has long been a limitation about the CDA registering the PCC as the apex co-op federation since there is no provision in the Cooperative Code of 2008 for such.
With reports from www.senate.gov.ph