A 100-Year Old Coop

COLLEGE, LAGUNA: This used to be the happy College Consumers' Cooperative canteen at the campus of the Cow College, otherwise known as University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (UPCA), otherwise known as UP Los Baños (UPLB). As students, we knew it simply as Coop. We sometimes ate our meals there, sometimes our snacks. We bought our school supplies there, including blue books. Now it's history, the Coop I mean, because UPLB does not seem to treasure history. After 100 years, the Coop cannot hold office there anymore. UP Lady President Emerlinda Roman, who is a product of UP Los Baños, terminated the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Coop and the University of the Philippines (UP) System in 2009, alleging violations of the terms of the MOA. No amount of appeal to the chancellors – first, Luis Rey Velasco, then Rex Victor Cruz, then Fernando Sanchez Jr – would change UP's mind about saying goodbye to the Coop. Goodbye to all that!

Taken just this June, the image shows the parking area full of cars. Knowing that the Coop had effectively been evicted from the place, I asked, "Why is it still full of cars?" The canteen is still there, I don't know under what kind of arrangements. OK Bautista, current Chair of the College Coop Board of Directors, said it's because the food is cheap. She meant the food is inexpensive, compared to other eating places outside the campus, or even inside.

As a UP alumnus, I don't understand why UP would evict a law-abiding tenant such as the Coop. This cooperative is, for goodness sake, 100 years old this year! At the time of its eviction in 2009, the Coop was already 93 years old, not infirm, but alive and kicking, yet it suffered ignominy from people who did not respect old age.

Historically valuable in itself, in the Philippines the Coop was the very first consumers' coop set up in the Philippines and registered with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), which already had a regional office in the nearby municipality of Calamba, the capital of Laguna. The Coop is the oldest in the Philippines, and it's valuable not only because of age. I know the value of a cooperative because I am a member of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative in my hometown of Asingan in Pangasinan and, in fact, I am the Vice Chair of the Board.

The College Consumers' Cooperative was so named because the members were from the UP College of Agriculture, which was and is simply called "College" – even the campus is simply referred to as "College" and in fact it has the legitimate post office address "College, Laguna." Ask the bus conductor to ticket you for "College" and he knows exactly where to drop you off.

How valuable has been the Coop? This consumers' cooperative was set up by College employees for their mutual benefit in terms of buying some home and office supplies. The Coop would buy for them at wholesale prices and sell to them at retail prices that are still affordable and even lower than outside the campus. At the end of the year, the members are doubly compensated: one, paid dividends for their capital shares and, two, paid patronage refund for their purchases, which actually is their total discount for the year considering all their purchases.

Government offices like UP are notorious for not paying their staff high salaries, so things that reduce necessary expenses legitimately as well as earn interest are welcome to Coop members. This is what the officials of the UP System don't seem to understand, or appreciate.

Nonetheless, in tune and in time with the Loyalty Day celebration of 2016, the Coop is celebrating its centenary just 10 days ahead of the actual date of founding, which is 20 October 1916, in order to take advantage of the presence of alumni of UP Los Baños. The future of the Coop is in limbo, but the centenary celebration must go on, if only to pay homage to the men and women who have served one after the other as officers and staff of the Coop since 1916.

A consumer cooperative is actually a business enterprise owned by the members who are also the main consumers of the goods and services that the cooperative buys and sells. Not what you read in the literature, or the Internet, but the way I see it, there are twin goals of a cooperative: service and profit – but not at the expense of the members. There must be the profit motive, but it must be tempered with service and concern for community. If a cooperative is non-profit, it will not survive.

The College Coop has been selling home and office supplies that are cheaper than those outside the campus; that is because, beyond recouping expenses and adding a little profit margin, the Coop has been buying in bulk, enjoying economies of scale. Let me call it economic democracy. A coop is democracy in actual practice: of the people, by the people, for the people.

The Coop is a democratic cooperative that allows member control and participation in all the affairs of the group. The members meet periodically to establish policy when needed and elect directors as necessary. The cooperative hires a Manager to administer its affairs on a day-to-day basis.

Another way of putting it is that a consumers' cooperative has both economic and social responsibilities. The economic side is to enable the retail business to be successful; the social side is to enable the members to receive monetary and communal values from the transactions.

Not emphasized in the literature is the role of consumers' cooperatives in collecting and/or accepting members' produce or product and selling them on consignment.

It must also be emphasized that the Coop had been following the Rochdale principles:

(1)     Sell goods at market prices or slightly lower than market prices, so as to avoid conflict with neighboring stores.

(2)     Sell high-quality goods, not low-quality ones, as required by most members.

(3)     Be accurate in weighing, scooping and measuring goods.

(4)     Buy a variety of daily necessities for sale to members.

(5)     Sell goods on cash basis to ensure a good cash flow for the store, with the ability to make purchases at reasonable cost and prevent delinquency among members.

The Coop has been maintaining adequate working capital for buying various goods and materials in response to members' needs.

The Coop has been observing the five principles governing cooperatives as adapted by the General Assembly of the International Cooperation Alliance on 23 September 1995 on the occasion of the Alliance's centenary (The Blue Hill Co-op Community Market & Café, bluehill.coop):

1st Principle: Voluntary and open membership
2nd Principle: Democratic member control
3rd Principle: Member economic participation
4th Principle: Autonomy and independence
5th Principle: Education, training and information.
6th Principle: Cooperation among cooperatives.
7th Principle: Concern for community.

The College Coop has been following all of the above in the last 100 years. Now we must say goodbye to it because some people cannot see the value of service with profit shown working together. Instead of keeping on cultivating this 100-year old crop, in some sort of reverse crop husbandry, the College has condemned it to die.