Press Release
August 10, 2019

CDA Charter passed into law

Republic Act No. 11364, or the Cooperative Development Authority Charter of 2019, was finally signed into law on 8 August 2019. Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel F. Zubiri, who chairs the Senate Committee on Cooperatives, authored and sponsored the CDA Charter of 2019 in supplement to the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008.

"This will respond to the clamor of the cooperative sector, to make the Cooperative Development Authority more responsive to the needs of the sector and further promote cooperativism as an effective tool in achieving inclusive growth," Zubiri said of the law.

The CDA Charter of 2018 is a long-overdue amendment of the original charter passed in 1990. This revised charter introduces institutional reforms that will strengthen the CDA and allow it to more effectively serve the sector. Notably, the composition of the Board has been modified. Where the old charter called for a Board of Administrators made up of two representatives each from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the new charter mandates instead the creation of a Board of Directors. Each director will represent a cluster of cooperatives instead of a region. Candidates for directorship must have at least five years of professional experience as officers of a cooperative, and they are to represent the following cooperative sectors:

1. Credit and financial services, banking, and insurance;

2. Consumers, marketing, producers, and logistics;

3. Human services: health, housing, workers, and labor service;

4. Education and advocacy;

5. Agriculture, agrarian, aquaculture, farmers, dairy, and fisherfolk;

6. Public utilities: electricity, water, communications, and transport.

With a Board of Directors composed of a Chairperson and 6 representatives from the cooperative sector itself, the charter will strengthen the partnership between the CDA and the cooperative sector in allowing for stronger consultative mechanisms between them.

Under the charter, the Board will also now strictly function as a policy-making body, as well as an adjudicating body with regard to cases brought before them. They are to focus on this function, and no longer exercise administrative or managerial functions over the affairs of the CDA--a responsibility that will be handed over to an Administrator who functions like an executive director in other government agencies. "Bilang mga adjudicators, ang CDA Board of Directors ay mabilis ng makapagdesisyon sa mga intra at inter-cooperative disputes, makakapagpataw na sila ng mga parusa sa mga nagkakamaling kooperatiba at umaksyon o kanselahin ang rehistro ng mga nagpapanggap na kooperatiba na kadalasang binibiktima ay ang mga mahihirap nating mga kababayan," Zubiri added.

To further open the lines of communication with the sector, the charter shall also recognize sectoral apex organizations and a national alliance of cooperatives. These groups shall serve as the overall consultative and coordinating body with the CDA. "As its developmental functions, the CDA can provide technical support and market linkages especially to start-up cooperatives," Senator Zubiri said. "I thank President Rodrigo Duterte for signing the law despite the last ditch efforts of some vested interests to block its enactment into law," Zubiri also said.

Zubiri added, "We hope that with the reorganization and strengthening of the CDA, we will be able to address the issues and challenges that stunt the development and progress of cooperativism in the country."

News Latest News Feed