Chairman Santiaguel
Launches a Collectivist Counter Culture

"What if the New President Fails?" This question is indeed "an awesome food for thought!" That his failure is not his alone but more so of the Filipino people, we should not allow him to fail. It is horrible even to contemplate of failure knowing that the culture of poverty has now engulfed our people as the Philippines has now the most prevalent incidence of poverty in East Asia. His failure means that a few elite will continue to have much too much and the many who are poor will continue to have much too little and corruption and ineptness in bureaucracy will not yet be put in the "dustbin" of history. If such be the case, then, God forbids, we will surely face consequences of civil war.

His failure will mean that the culture of powerlessness will continue to breed despair and out of hopelessness, many have to leave their love ones to find jobs abroad. Like a sinking ship, some 3,000 Filipinos are jumping in droves every month to seek greener pastures in other countries. The culture of corruption and greed has stripped our country of whatever dignity it has left. The culture of violence has put our country in shame as it is only in the Philippines where the Maguindanao Massacre is possible, where the perpetuators have yet to be punished, notwithstanding that we have the most number of journalists killed.

These cultures must now be countervailed upon by the new President with the full force of the people supporting him. We must now reclaim back our dignity as a people and win back the future for our children. Today, the cooperative movement in the country with some 7 million members, are one with the new President in advancing a collectivist counter culture as its response to countervail against the dominant paradigm of poverty, powerlessness, violence and corruption.

That collectivist counterculture is our response to break monopolies and cartels in a country where only 400 families control the economy. As stated in his inaugural speech, there is a need to get rid of middlemen. It is indeed imperative to do this because the usurers, the chemical dealers, the compradors and the agri-business corporations are the ones benefiting from farming, not those who are doing the back-breaking job of tilling the land the poor farmers. This is the reason why the cooperatives are now initiating "direct-buying and direct-selling" so as to erase unnecessary marketing layers. As you know, everything sold in this country, from needle to tractor, passes at least 5 to 7 layers so that a bag of fertilizer bought at P200 in Urkraine, is sold at P1,500 pesos in Bukidnon, at the expense of our poor farmers.

The collectivist counterculture is the correct path to unfetter those in the margins to be drawn into the mainstream of development processes. It is the vehicle to erase social exclusion and to replace it with democratic processes to give credence to that constitutional mandate that "sovereignty resides in the people and all government authorities emanate from them."

That collectivist counterculture goes by the name of cooperativism because in its truest sense cooperativism means social transformation based on the principles of social justice, equity and sustainable development. It relies on the inherent power of the people to craft their own destiny by exercising that God-given right of decision making. Above all, it empowers the people by putting power where it rightfully belongs, which is, to the communities in whose name and for whose cause cooperatives are there for.

As President Aquino "has vowed to consult the people for everything he plans to do over the next six years," the cooperative movement respectfully and humbly presents to His Excellency the following paradigm shifts.

First, it has become imperative to debunk conventional agriculture and shift to organic and natural farming. Long term development in this country can be won or lost through agriculture. Poverty is very glaring in the rural communities, which is highly attributed to a kind of farming system anchored on conventional agriculture which has robbed the rural communities of farming which rightfully belongs to them. As countervailing measures, the cooperatives are shifting to natural, organic, ecological and even bio-dynamics farming.

Second, it is the position of the cooperatives for the marginalized sectors (Muslims, Lumads, small farmers, fisherfolk) to be given the preferential use rights in developing their respective resources and that their cooperatives be accorded with the utmost priority in the use and management of such resources, giving them the license, franchise and whatever privilege to handle key economic activities, i.e., planting industrial crops, sustainable mining, fishing, etc. based on the universal principle that the use of God-given resources should accrue to the benefit of the bulk of the people and not just of a few.

Third, the cooperatives are ardently advancing for the Rights Based Management of Utilities by cooperativizing so-called Electric Cooperatives and Water Utilities. It is their firm belief that when these basic utilities are owned and managed by the member-consumers, it will lower down the cost and somehow reduce the incidence of poverty.

And finally, the cooperatives are one with His Excellency in advancing peace in Mindanao. Having experience the pains and bitterness of continuing conflict, the cooperative movement cannot just remain as bystanders knowing that the essence of cooperativsm may yet be the long awaited answer for peace and stability in our country. Cooperativism's raizon d' etre is to address the roots of the conflict which is social injustice, inequities and poverty.

Indeed, the road ahead for the new President will be long and arduous. The climb will be steep. But he will get there in making life better for the people because the people are with him. That is for certain because I firmly believe that the "People United Can Never Be Defeated!" That is the reason why he cannot fail

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