ILOILO – Eight cooperatives here will showcase Ilonggo native products and crafts in a two-week trade fair and exhibit which opens today at the ground floor of the Iloilo provincial capitol.
Selling fresh vegetables and fruits to processed and preserved food products, these exhibitors are from the municipalities of Alimodian, Badiangan, Bingawan, Calinog, Leon, Oton, and Pototan.
The host for the Cooperative Month, the municipality of Batad, will also set up its own booth to showcase their town’s products and saleable artisan crafts.
Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. and Batad mayor Elvira Alarcon, represented by Vice Mayor Ernesto Balida, are expected to open the trade fair and exhibit.
GROWTH STIMULATOR
Cooperatives have been instrumental in helping the poor in the countryside, according to Vidal Villanueva III, Board of Administrator for Visayas of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA).
There has been a study by the Asian Development Bank that people’s lives were getting better in areas where cooperatives operate.
“Kung saan ang cooperatiba, maayos ang buhay ng tao,” he stressed in his solidarity speech during the grand opening of the Cooperative Month in Batad on Oct. 9.
He added that coop members should continue to educate their family and non-members about the movement, for it is the key to resolving poverty.
“This is the way to resolve financial difficulties. Through the cooperative, we are empowering our members and the very community we live in,” said Villanueva.
Villanueva graced the opening ceremony together with Provincial Board member Dr. Nieleto Tupas, also the chairman of the Committee on Cooperatives in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
This year’s Cooperative Month theme is “Cooperativism: A countervailing force against climate change and violent extremism through people empowerment to trail blaze shift in paradigm towards sustainability and social inclusion.” (Jezza A. Nepomoceno, Iloilo Capitol/PN)
