TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The Tabuk Multi-purpose Cooperative (TAMPCO) posted P284.7M or 23.27 percent over its P1.2B assets at the end of 2017 capping a resurgence which saw the cooperative accumulate a billion pesos assets in just eight years.
The TAMPCO used to be the top cooperative in the region until it was surpassed by the Baguio-Benguet Community Credit Cooperative (BBCCC) some 15 years ago. BBCCC went on to became the first billionaire cooperative of the Cordillera in 2008.
As of December 31, 2017, BBCC had an asset of P1.77B while Abra Diocesan Teachers and Employees Multi-purpose Cooperative and Benguet State University Multi-purpose Cooperative (BSUMPC), the only two other billionaire cooperatives in the region, were close behind TAMPCO with their respective assets of P1.19 B had P1.16B.
The bad news for TAMPCO, however, is if the information that the BSUMPC grew by half a billion last year is true, then the Tabuk cooperative will slide to No. 3 in the region.
In his report to the General Assembly on February 23, Chief Executive Officer Elmerli Colangan attributed to increase in deposits and share capital which reflects “your trust and confidence and your continuous patronage and support of the cooperative.”
Colangan also said that the profitability or ability of the assets to generate surplus improved to 4.90 percent from 4.70 percent in 2017 and 4.50 in 2016 paving the way for an increase in dividend rate from 7.57 percent in 2017 to 8.03 percent in 2018.
Colangan reported that in 2018, the membership of the cooperative grew by 3,108 members which resulted to a net increase in membership of 2,869 bringing the membership to 18,812.
“The remarkable growth of our membership is a testament that our cooperative has captured the trust and confidence of the people in our areas of jurisdiction,” Colangan said .
The cooperative recently opened branches in Santiago City, Isabela, in Rizal, Kalinga and Conner, Apayao which account for 1,373 of the total members of the cooperative.
Colangan also reported to the members that the delinquency rate of the cooperative which stood at 6.17 in 2016 and had drastically gone down to 3.84 in 2017 was further whittled down to 3.12 percent in 2018. He would tell the Manila Times that there was a time the cooperative struggled with a delinquency rate of as high as 15 percent.
To further strengthen the cooperative’s drive against delinquency, the General Assembly last Saturday enacted a policy disqualifying candidates for officerships who co-made loans which have become delinquent on the rationale that officers should convince others to be good borrowers.
Under existing policies, a delinquent loan of the candidate or of his spouse in the TAMPCO or any other cooperative disqualifies the candidate.
Some of the major actions taken by the Board of Directors in 2018 were the reduction of the interest rate on all loan windows except for the inter-cooperative loan window from 10 percent to 8 percent, setting the maximum payment period of regular loans to five years and the acceptance of CLOA title as valid collateral.**By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
