Here is the latest development from the cooperative front: The cooperatives are declaring affirmatively that they are up to the task of being not only as instrument of social justice and sustainable development but as a vehicle for peace.
Dubbed as the 11.11.11, some 5,000 cooperative leaders coming from all over the country will converge at the Atrium, Lim Ket Kai Center, Cagayan de Oro City to collectively advance what they believe is their inherent right to live in peace founded on social justice, equity and sustainable development.
This gathering of the kindred will showcase the raizon d' etre of tooperativism especially in Mindanao, an island that can be aptly described as a land of paradox and contradictions. Why is this so?
While Mindanao oozes with ecological resources so rich in fisheries, agriculture, forests and mines, it is where 14 of the poorest provinces are found and its poor are the poorest throughout the country. While it is called the "food basket" of the nation, hunger is very evident as SWS survey disclosed that 15% of the household heads reported that their families had experienced hunger, without anything to eat, once in the last 3 months.
So rich yet so poor. such is the paradox that is Mindanao and unless these contradictions are resolved, poverty will always breed violence; it will always remain on the best recruiter of terrorists. Unless the causes of dissent and conflict are addressed, military actions will just be palliatives and cannot provide the long term solution.
It is in this light that the more than 20,000 active cooperatives over the country with some 7 million members are standing up to the call to advance their agenda for peace.
First, the cooperatives believe that the country's number one resource is its people. Enhancing therefore their capabilities, developing their potentials and harnessing their skills must take precedence over other priorities knowing that countries that have not developed their human capital are now penalized by slow growth. Cooperative Human Resource Development Center must be established in every region of the country. |
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Secondly, the marginalized sectors - Muslims, Lumads, small farmers, fisher folks - 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 the God-given resources should
accrue to the benefit of the bulk of the people and not just for a few.
Thirdly, that the utilities such as those providing basic needs - electricity and water- should be cooperativized especially so-called electric cooperatives so as to rectify social wrings committed against member-consumers whose rights of ownership have been violated all these years.
Fourthly, the cooperatives are one with our Muslim brothers and sisters in promoting Halal Program, to make thousand hectares of idle lands productive to be planted with crops and raising of livestocks for local consumptions and for local and international market.
Indeed, where there is social injustice, tehre will always be conflict; where their hunger, peace will just remain an illusion. The cooperatives are now standing as one to rectify social inequities through cooperativism founded on the collective spirit of the people.
We have witnessed in the past several approaches for peace especially in Mindanao. This time, it is the Mindanawons themselves, the primary stakeholders, giving notice to one and all that we have to address the causes of war and to pursue the imperatives for peace. This can only be done by putting the people in control over their lives and over their resources which are fast slipping through their fingers. --ORR
THE COOPERATIVES' MANIFESTO:
LET OUR PEOPLE BLEED MORE
We the cooperatives, with seven milliom members nationwide are one in vehemently condemning the "Maguindanao Massacre" which is the most tragic and horrible manifestation of "negative peace" aptly described as a condition where there is no on-going actual combat but the ingredients of conflict and violence are present, ready to erupt anytime.
Negative peace presents Itself In many ways. Where power and greed drlven-structures exist having private armies as vanguards; where there are despotic leaders " whom the gods would like to destroy, they make mad first" where poverty are further marginalized having no communities of their human dignity.
Where the constituents have become beholden to the whims and caprices of politicians through their patronage politics; where social injustices are at Its worst portrayed by farmers tilling the land not their own; where the Indigenous people are further marginalized having no access and control over their resources.
Where the people are further socially excluded; where the sacred act of choosing those who will govern us has been blatantly violated through money politics and cheatlngs. All of these are symptoms of societal flaws that have already caused so much bleedings to our people.
When these conditions exist, let us all bewarel Physical violence will burst out anytime even for a flimsy of reason as exemplified by the recent massacre, a logical conclusion emanating from power-driven structures that have spawned utmost fear, dire poverty and great disparities. These are by themselves subtle and sllentforms of violence, the epitome of negative peace.
How do we then effect conflict transformation to establish a more just and humane society so that wars and unnecessary killings can be the things of the past, to be erased from a dvl II zed society!
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Let us listen to the voice of the cooperatives on this matter. On October 2,200, some three thousand cooperative leaders coming from the six regions of Mindanao Including those from Maguindanao convened in Cagayan de Oro In the first ever Mindanao Cooperative Peace Forum. It was there when WE collectively proclaimed OUR united stand for peace In Mindanao. No less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who did grace the momentous occasion as the Keynote Speaker received personally our Paper entitled, "The Mindanao Cooperative Declaration for Peace."
In that Paper, we have laid down the cooperative strategic blue-print for peace by empowering the people to participate In the peace-buHding process. The strategic plan covers the seven paths to achieve the elusive peace, namely-conflict transformation, management and resolution, sustainable agriculture where communities are the ones to benefit from farming and not a few agri-business corporations, the marginalized sectors to have access and control over their resources, rights-based management of utilities, the promotion of Ha lal Food and the establishment of Hum an Resource Peace Ce nters In every region. |
The historical convergence has put Into the mainstream of the peace process the Mindanao Cooperative Movement that embraces some 5,000 active cooperatives In the Is land with someone million two hundred thousand members.
It Is in this light that we collectively our Indignation of the Maguindanao Massacre, a barbaric and diabolic act that has no place In a civilized society and In an age where h u ma n ity is Increasl ngfy going I nto the I Ight of splrltua I consciousness.
It is our unequivocal stand for the prompt resolution of such a dastardly act by making those responsible accountable to the highest degree possible. Even as we decry the massacre, we are strongly demanding for justice to the victims and the corresponding punishment to the perpetrators. We have anchored the pursuit for peace In the essence of cooperativism that relies on democratic processes and by our abiding faith in the strength of the human sprit, In love and oneness with one another transcending race, clan, gender, beliefs and ideologies. |
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To that, we are strongly committing ourselves to rectify social wrings so as to erase negative peace through peace building. This Manifesto presents the essence of cooperatlvesm in Its truest from - the road to lasting peace.
Indeed, our collective consciousness and actions should make obsolete greed-driven structures to consign them Into the dustbin of history.
Now more than ever and with a firm collective Intent, we will ardently partlclpate Inthe peace building process as we serve notice to one and all: Let our people bleed no more.
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