Coop-NATCCO has represented the Philippine co-operative sector in Congress since 1998 when the party won a seat in the House of Representatives in the first ever national party-list election held in the country that year. Coop-NATCCO has continued to win a seat in Congress in the succeeding party-list elections since 1998.

Coop-NATCCO representatives have included Cong. Cresente C. Paez in the 11th Congress and Cong. Guillermo P. Cua in the 13th Congress and the present 14th Congress. Despite its winning votes, Coop-NATCCO had no representative in the 12th Congress because of a disqualification case brought against the party by another party-list. The disqualification issue dragged for almost the whole length of the 12th Congress. In December 2003, the COMELEC upheld Coop-NATCCO as a qualified party-list but by that time, it was too late for Coop-NATCCO to have a Congress Representative proclaimed for the party.

Beginnings

Coop-NATCCO Party-List was created through the initiative of NATCCO leaders who saw in the party-list system an opportunity to go beyond mere dependence on traditional politicians to push forward the co-operatives’ legislative agenda. They recognized that active participation in the implementation of laws and government policies was necessary to ensure that the desired results for co-operative growth and development would be achieved.

On July 27, 1997, the NATCCO board met at Cauayan, Isabela and approved the Network’s participation in the party-list election. Shortly after, on November 12, 1997, the board met again and commissioned Atty. Edmund Lao to prepare the party’s manifestation to participate in the election and to draft the bylaws of Coop-NATCCO Network Party-List.

Coop-NATCCO Party-List was registered with the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) on the day of the deadline, practically on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (November 11, 1997). Though the party anticipated a favorable response from the COMELEC on its registration, this did not happen as expected. On February 7, 1998, a COMELEC promulgation disqualified the party. Atty. Edmund Lao immediately filed a motion for reconsideration. Meanwhile, the party did not lose hope and still proceeded to come up with its list of five (5) nominees.

On February 12, 1998, the COMELEC handed down a decision in favor of the party-list’s motion for reconsideration, thus qualifying Coop-NATCCO as a party-list candidate.

In the May 14, 1998 elections, Coop-NATCCO Party-List garnered 189,000 votes (representing 2.2% of the total national party-list votes), giving Coop-NATCCO a seat in the House of Representatives. Cong. Cresente C. Paez represented the party-list in Congress this first time.

Coop-NATCCO Hits a Bump Despite Victory

Coop-NATCCO participated again in the 2001 national elections. The party garnered 226,169 votes, an increase of 20% compared to the 1998 votes. Based on the final COMELEC canvass report for that election, 7,078,141 votes were cast for the party-list, giving Coop-NATCCO a 3.1% share and a seat in Congress.

However, based on a motion for disqualification by BAYAN OFW against Coop-NATCCO, the COMELEC had recommended the disqualification of Coop-NATCCO and sixteen other party-list groups in its partial compliance report of July 27, 2001.

The disqualification of Coop-NATCCO was apparently based on a statement in the COMELEC report that “in 1999, Congress allocated PhP70.676 Million Pesos for the NATCCO Network…” On December 5, 2001, Coop-NATCCO filed before the Supreme Court a final position paper with a motion to proclaim. The party reiterated that “not a single centavo of the P70 million allocated went to the coffers of Coop-NATCCO…” The party further said that “the allocation went to projects it had proposed and identified as part of its work as a party-list representative and implemented by the various branches of the Executive Branch.”

Meanwhile, various sectoral groups, development NGOs and NGOs rushed to defend and support Coop-NATCCO in its bid to regain its seat in Congress. In their Manifesto of Support, they declared that the recommended disqualification of the party would be a “grave injustice to Coop-NATCCO and all marginalized and under-represented sectors.” They stated further that not only does Coop-NATCCO’s membership come from the poor sectors including farmers and fisherfolk, salary and wage earners, self-employed, housekeepers, students and others, but the party also proved during its stint in the 11th Congress that it advanced and supported the causes and proposed bills of the marginalized and underrepresented sectors.

The National Congress of the Caucus of Development NGOs (CODE-NGO) also threw its support behind Coop-NATCCO through a resolution approved by more than a thousand members. In particular, the CODE-NGO Congress called on the COMELEC to recognize Coop-NATCCO as a qualified party-list candidate representing the underrepresented and marginalized sectors and complying with all the other requirements of the Party-List System Act and the June 26, 2001 Supreme Court decision

Coop-NATCCO leaders relentlessly pursued the success of the case and finally, on December 13, 2003, COMELEC clarified that its true intention was to qualify the party but because of an honest mistake, it was listed among those which were disqualified.

On January 12, 2004, Coop-NATCCO filed a motion for leave with the Supreme Court to allow the COMELEC to proclaim one Congress Representative for Coop-NATCCO. However, this motion was overtaken by events. The Supreme Court gave more attention to the FPJ disqualification case at that time.

Continuing Victory in the Party-List Elections

Coop-NATCCO continued to participate in the national elections of 2004 and 2007, emerging victorious each time. In the 2004 elections, Coop-NATCCO garnered 270,950 votes, an increase of 42.7% over the party’s 2001 votes. In 2007, Coop-NATCCO’s votes increased by more than 50% to 409,812 votes. Votes garnered by the party in 2004 and 2007 were enough to qualify it for a seat in Congress.

Cong. Guillermo P. Cua has represented Coop-NATCCO in the 13th and 14th Philippine Congress.

Accomplishments in the 11th Congress

Legislative Work

“First steps, initial victories,” was how Cong. Paez described Coop-NATCCO’s initial venture into the halls of Congress. Despite being a neophyte in Congress, the party and Cong. Paez fearlessly faced the challenges posed by legislative work, and by mid-term of the 11th Congress, Coop-NATCCO, through Cong. Paez, had filed twenty three bills and resolutions of national application and co-authored more than eighty other bills and resolutions. These numbers would increase further by the end of the 11th Congress – 120 bills and resolutions authored and co-authored by Cong. Paez for the party. The proposed measures centered on co-operative promotion and development, agrarian reform, rural development and economic democratization, people empowerment and political democratization, women’s rights and gender concerns, cultural revaluation, and environmental protection and sustainable development.

Several of the co-authored bills were enacted into law, including the Clean Air Act, Anti-Trafficking of Women and Children Act, Solid Waste Management Act, and Wildlife Resources Protection Act.

On the other hand, most of the co-operative bills that Coop-NATCCO had filed were approved on third and final reading including HB 6405, amending the Co-operative Code of the Philippines; HB 6406, amending the Co-operative Development Authority Law; HB 6407, clarifying co-operatives’ tax exemption privilege; HB 7755, providing for 2 co-operative representatives in the board of the Land Bank of the Philippines; and HB 4040, mandating Co-op Education at all school levels.

Fiscalizing Work

Cong. Paez was also focused on fiscalizing and ensuring a more appropriate national government budget. A close scrutiny of the budget of the Co-operative Development Authority in the year 2000 resulted in the transfer of more than P20 Million Pesos to local co-operative business development programs. Several investigations brought to light questionable practices of some CDA officials in their lending programs to co-operatives and in recommending tax exemptions to co-ops importing vehicles.

Constituency Support and Services

• Provided scholarship grants to 90 needy but deserving children of co-op members
• Funded P124.5 Million Pesos of co-operative projects all over the country. The projects included, among others, infrastructure projects, housing projects, potable water systems, medical assistance, day care centers, and micro-finance and livelihood projects.

Coop-NATCCO Takes a Principled Stand

The 11th Congress will be remembered as the Congress that impeached President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. Though there were “powers that be” that tried to influence Coop-NATCCO on its decision, the party voted its conscience and fully supported the impeachment petition. Members were mobilized for the various rallies calling for the President’s resignation or impeachment, including the final People Power rallies at EDSA and other places in the country, in January 2001.

Accomplishments in the 13th Congress

Legislative Work

The 13th Congress will perhaps be defined as the Congress in which Coop-NATCCO, with the support of the entire co-operative sector, successfully defended and preserved co-operatives’ tax incentives provided under Articles 61 and 62 of the Co-operative Code of the Philippines.

Cooperatives of whatever size, type and affiliation came together and relentlessly advocated with the House of Representatives and the Senate that “taxing cooperatives is anti-poor, anti-cooperative, and anti-just” and therefore, “taxing coops is axing coops.” It greatly helped that Coop-NATCCO Party-List Representative Guillermo P. Cua was elected as one of the fifteen HOR members who participated in the Bicameral Conference Committee on the Expanded Value Added Tax (E-VAT) bill. Cong. Cua was able to successfully defend coops’ position to retain the just and correct tax treatment of coops.

Coop-NATCCO Party-List, through Cong. Cua, was able to file eleven bills and resolutions and co-author more than ninety other bills and resolutions in the 13th

Congress. The bills were mainly national in scope and responded to the party’s legislative agenda of fighting poverty and inequality; controlling foreign borrowings and the budget deficit; and lessening people’s cynicism by supporting measures that will ensure the greater participation and representation of the different sectors of society in government.

Among the bills co-authored by Coop-NATCCO, sixteen were approved by the House of Representatives while three others were signed into law by the President including R. A. 9346, “An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of the Death Penalty in the Philippines”; R. A. 9344, “An Act Establishing a Comprehensive Juvenile Justice and Welfare System,” and R. A. 9340, “An Act Amending republic Act No. 9164, to Extend the Terms of Office of Barangay Officials and Reset the Date of Barangay Elections.”

Most of the cooperative bills filed by Coop-NATCCO were approved by the House of Representatives including HB 6938, amending the Cooperative Code of the Philippines; HB 1124, mandating the representation of cooperatives in the board of the Land Bank of the Philippines; and HB 1954, enhancing financial service coops, which was incorporated in HB 1123.

Constituency Support and Services

• Php 75 Million infrastructure projects to 144 coops and 31 LGUs
• Php 10 Million financial assistance to coops
• Computer grant to 116 coops
• Farm implements and equipments to Agri-Coops
• Information technology support to 43 public schools
• Scholarship grant to 127 indigent but deserving college students
• Textbooks to 7 public schools and libraries
• Medicine support to 6 community medical missions
• Construction of 3 public school buildings

Cooperative-Government Partnership Strengthened

• Hon. Lecira Juarez as Chairperson of the Cooperative Development Authority
• Hon. Cresente Paez, Sr. as Coop Sector Commissioner of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) and Director of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB)
• Hon. Luis Carrillo as Board Trustee of the Quedan Rural Credit and Guarantee Corporation
• Hon. Sylvia Okinlay-Paraguya as Philippine Government Peace Negotiator with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
• Hon. Segfredo Buagas as Administrator of the Cooperative Development Authority

Coop-NATCCO Says “Yes” to the E-VAT Law

In 2005, both the Upper and Lower Houses of Congress focused on enacting a number of tax reform measures, referred to as “bitter pills,” to address the fiscal problems of the government. While increasing efficiency in tax collection and winning the battle against corruption to gain revenues were deemed long-term solutions to abate the budget crisis, the government believed that increasing revenues through new tax measures and lifting tax exemptions were unpopular but immediate solutions to relieve the country’s budget deficit. This approach was expected to ease the country’s national debt which had increased to Php5.3 Trillion and to help put the government’s house in order.

Coops were among those who became targets of the tax measure. The E-VAT Law would have removed the tax incentives of cooperatives and would have subjected them to the payment of the Value Added Tax (VAT). Through the good workings of Coop-NATCCO Representative Guillermo Cua and the concerted effort of cooperatives throughout the country, the tax exemptions and incentives of agri-coops, credit coops, and other coops, were successfully defended and preserved.

Accomplishments in the 14th Congress

Legislative Work

In the present 14th Congress, the Coop-NATCCO congressional office has filed fifteen (15) bills and resolutions and co-authored twenty six (26) other bills and resolutions. To date, three (3) Coop-NATCCO sponsored bills have been enacted into law while a resolution that was likewise filed by the party has been adopted by Congress. The bills include the Civil Aviation Authority Act, University of the Philippines Charter, and Cheaper Medicines Act. The resolution allows the participation of POs and NGOs in Congress budget deliberations.

Other bills have been approved by the HOR or its committees. Among the bills that have been approved at the committee level, both at the HOR and Senate, is the Coop Code Amendments bill. The bill has been scheduled for Second Reading Approval at both houses of congress.

Constituency Support and Services

• PhP 19.350 Million for Luzon projects (34 coops and 2 LGUs as beneficiaries)
• PhP 14.0 Million for Visayas projects (20 coops as beneficiaries)
• PhP 21.550 Million for Mindanao projects (19 coops and 6 LGUs as beneficiaries)
• PhP 1.5 Million TESDA scholarship grants
• PhP 3.5 Million financial grants to hospitals for indigents
• Sports equipment from the Philippine Sports Commission (100 basketballs, 100 volleyballs, 20 chess boards)
• Scholarship grant to 40 indigent but deserving college students
• Barangay solar powered lamps for Mindanao
• P5 Million farm-to-market roads for Mindanao