Helping Indigenous cultural minorities

The law requires municipalities, cities and provinces to appoint representatives of Indigenous Cultural Minorities (ICMs) to the municipal, city and provincial councils if there are enough of them who are living within their jurisdictions. This is a wonderful provision in the law, but it seems that its implementation is not uniformly or consistently done all over the country.

At the outset, I would say that the Dept. of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) are the agencies that should take the lead in implementing these laws, but it seems difficult to gather compliance data about which jurisdictions are abiding with the laws and which ones are not.

Aside from the two NGAs and the three levels of LGUs, I believe that the role of NGOs in the overall implementation should also be recognized, including the many churches-based organizations (CBOs) that are helping the ICMs everywhere. Counting everyone, there should be a three-way cooperation in this overall process. Where can we get information about the status of implementation? And how can we find out about the progress of the cooperation? Can any of the NGAs, LGUs and CBOs bring out the information? Ideally, there should be an office for ICM affairs in the LGUs.

 

More cooperative owned health clinics

In theory, cooperatives could own and operate any business under the sun, provided that it is legal. Given that premise, it is therefore perfectly doable and allowable for a cooperative to own and operate a health clinic, even a hospital, for that matter. Since there are no legal impediments towards doing that, the coops should go towards that direction, and they should get help if they want to do that.

It's no big secret that the existing rural health units (RHUs) are almost always ill-equipped, short-funded and are lacking in doctors, nurses and other related health professionals. As a matter of fact, you will be lucky if you can find a doctor in an RHU, more so in the Geographically Isolated and Depressed Areas (GIDAs), as defined by DOH.

As part of my advocacy, I am now convincing some satellite-based internet service providers (ISPs) to look for possible uses of their services that would have a social impact in remote areas, as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

Also, as part of my advocacy, I have invited Dr. Luis Ramon Rodriguez, President of Philippine Medical Depot (PMD), to make his “Healthy Me” all-in-one kiosk innovation available to coops under affordable terms. Hopefully, with the combination of these ISPs and PMD, more coops could put up their own health clinics.

 

Cheaper and safer foods from cooperatives

It is very difficult to expect commercial sources of food supplies to lower their prices, because they must cover their costs and make money as well. That is how it is in a money-making business, and there is no way about it. But if that is so? Is there still a way to buy foods that are not only cheaper, but are also safer?

My answer to that is yes, if you buy from cooperatives that could produce it on their own or are sourcing it from other coops. On the production side, foods sourced from coops are cheaper because they are using their own labor, and they have certain duty-free privileges. On the marketing side, they could offer discounts and rebates to members.

Aside from the discounts and rebates, coop members also receive cash dividends at the end of the year, and that also actually translates into savings on food expenses. In some cases, members could avail themselves of free food supplies whenever there are food surpluses on the production side. Food safety is a difficult challenge even for the big companies, but since the coops are owned by the members, they could all work together to ensure the safety of their food products. If you want to buy foods that are cheaper and safer, make sure to join a local coop because there is surely one that is near where you live.