Feature: Government Employees’ Cooperative Most Successful in the Province?

The Capitol Government Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CAPGEM), could be, pending a survey of coops in the whole province, could be the most

successful hereabouts in the way it is run and the quality and quantity of basic services it provides its membership, an interview carried out by NNF/NDB of Community Development Committee Chairman Hermes Ariño and another official Pastor Linz Villafranca, indicated.

Proof is that since years ago, the CAPGEM has accumulated total assets, both monetary and other properties worth a total of P160-M. From the looks of it and from the explanation provided by Assistant City Prosecutor Hermes Ariño, the cooperative is carefully run and with officials of the cooperative committed to promote the various interests of its memberships.

In fact, said Ariño, aside from catering to the interest of its memberships, it is carrying out programs and projects geared towards other marginalized members of the community.

And surprisingly, Ariño said they are also accepting savings deposits from the public and their members at higher interest rates which could be considered profitable. Compared to another coop in the province which is in the red by about P19-M, the CAPGEM is practically losing compared to many others here which are at the losing end.

The success of the multi-purpose government employees’ coop could be explained by the strong commitment of its officials, its careful and detailed efforts to oversee the interest of its members and concrete investigation of the members-borrowers to ensure that the loan they incur from the cooperative would be repaid.

If an employee is about to retire or is but a temporary employee, he or she is not allowed to just make a loan, but the committee for these which is chaired by Pastor Villafranca makes sure that whatever loan he incurs, could be withheld monthly through salary deductions.

The officials of the cooperative have a commitment and sense of service, which one seldom finds among other coop officials elsewhere.

And those who are willing to deposit their savings here, more so the public are welcome and their money earns more than if they would put in other savings account.

A savings deposit of P3-M could earn one P21T a month, enough to live by for the same period and which would result in one’s money in the CAPGEM intact, said Ariño.

The spirit of cooperativism, too, is nurtured among its officials and memberships.*