The Provincial Cooperative Development Council chaired by Dr. Profetiza Lim is among those invited to attend a Senate hearing in connection with the proposed lifting of tax exemptions among cooperatives all over the country, which they are opposing.
Lim, along with Cooperative Development Authority-registered cooperatives all over the Province and the entire country, are vehemently opposing the lifting because it will do more harm to small coops like farmers cooperatives in Negros Oriental.
This developed as a signature campaign was spearheaded by the PCDC during the two-day Agriculture Cooperatives Forum over the weekend at the convention center with participants coming from the four provinces of Region 7, Bohol, Cebu, Siquijor and Negros Oriental.
They are happy the House of Representatives already made a stand in their favor, and was hoping the Senate will do the same because it will be the members who will suffer especially those who belong to small coops like agricultural cooperatives, Lim said Monday afternoon.
According to Lim, the PCDC is even subsidizing the registration of small coop members to be able to attend the two-day agriculture cooperative forum. They thanked Gov. Roel Degamo for assuring them of a P1 million subsidy next year.
The forum was spearheaded by the PCDC for information dissemination on the standing of agriculture cooperatives in the country.
Topics included the state of the cooperative movement through Mercedes Castillo, member of the CDA Board of Administrators. (Juancho Gallarde/PNA)