Ka Hermie signs off @ 84
PARANAQUE CITY — The NATCCO Network joins San Dionisio Credit Cooperative in mourning the passing of co-op champion Herminio C. Hernandez last July 25. He was just a month short of his 85th birthday. Ka Hermie as he is known to the co-op sector, he ate, spoke and breathed cooperativism, learning the co-op ideology in the 1950s. He had seen Paranaque citizens exploited by usurers. In the 1950s, Jesuit priests Fr. Water Hogan and Fr. Gaston Duchesneau trained people in the community.
They put up San Dionisio Credit Cooperative in 1961 and 55 years later it has become a P1.7 Billion cooperative.
Ka Hermie pushed for “Transparency, honesty, and frugality observed to the letter.”
In a 2016 interview, he said: “My biggest contribution to the co-op is my sacrifice. If I had worked outside, perhaps money would have ever become a problem but there was always this desire to stick it out with the co-op. It was in the co-op that I was truly happy and able to serve people. It was there that I was able to prove that even if I ever held a blackened pot, I would not be sullied. When I handle money, the money will not disappear. That was a sacrifice for me and for my family.”
For him, it was always clear that the true measure of success for a cooperative is not in money. It is in the type of members — Total Human Development achieved through economic, political, cultural, and spiritual development of the co-op members.
He served as full-time manager of the San Dionisio co-op from 1972 to 2000. “Though we didn’t have any salary in the formative years, I told everyone that we were rich in our psychic income — the joy you experience when what you’re doing bears good fruit and benefits your fellow man. That is something money cannot buy.”
He said one of those that contributed to the positive growth of SDCC was the NATCCO. SDCC provided NATCCO’s first office space in Paranaque rent-free in 1977. NATCCO returned the favor in due time by providing leadership training and financial literacy classes to members and officers of SDCC.
Ka Hermie was named by the CDA as “Cooperative Legend” in 2011 and “Outstanding Cooperative Leader” in 2011.
The name San Dionisio Cooperative Credit Union, Inc. was named after the Patron Saint of Bgy. San Dionisio, St. Dionysius .
At first, the CAO was reluctant to register SDCCUI, because of the provision in the by-laws about minor depositors. It was also the first time ever that a community cooperative was organized. Later, however, the CAO agreed.
On October 4, 1973 San Dionisio Cooperative Credit Union Inc. was re-registered with the Bureau of Agricultural Cooperatives Development (BACOD). Later on, the cooperative was re-registered with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) under R.A. 6938 and 6939 bearing the name San Dionisio Credit Cooperative (SDCC).
On October 16, 2009, SDCC was again registered with the CDA under R.A. 9520, also known as the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008.
It may be worthwhile to note that with the help of the Varsitarians, a Parañaque civic club, the neighboring barangays of San Dionisio such as Tambo, Don Galo, Sto.Niño, La Huerta and Las Piñas were motivated to organize their own cooperatives during the early 60’s.
As of 2016, SDCC manages 18,201 member’s Assets amounting to P1.71 Billion.
While many co-op leaders boast how big their Assets stand or how many branches they have, San Dionisio leaders don’t think too much about it. For they believe that the Assets, though very important, is not the only gauge of a co-op’s effectiveness.
San Dionisio’s leaders are ideologues.
For instance, the SDCC has never established a branch outside of Paranaque City, for they believed doing so would result in competition – instead of cooperation – among cooperatives. Furthermore, non-residents of Paranaque City are discouraged from joining SDCC, and are advised to join co-ops in their locality.
SDCC leaders opposed COOP-NATCCO Partylist establishing partnerships with local politicians.
That is why the co-op engages in financial services to improve members’ lives. Plus medical services, insurance, retailing, livelihood, a school, and actively engages in NATCCO’s programs and products.
SDCC leaders have always preached that cooperatives are the most powerful engines of social change.
Ka Hermie Hernandez, the long-time General Manager of the co-op, firmly emphasized: “All problems in the cooperativism find its roots in lack of co-op education.”
And his successor, the current CEO, Cielo Garrido, proves to be no less. At co-op forums, she never fails to provide inputs based on the Cooperative Principles and Values.
Board members, likewise, receive only per diem, and are actively engaged in co-op activities.
With SDCC as one of the biggest depositors in the NATCCO Central Fund, Ms. Garrido currently serves as Chairperson of the Fund Executive Committee, tasked with overseeing the management of the Central Fund.