When this coronavirus pandemic caught us off guard, life became more difficult for most of us. The fear of infection from the rising cases has caused inevitable changes in the way we live and conduct business. The transition was so drastic that it cost us not only the fun of being social but as well as our very income.
Significant number of people lost their livelihoods but others were able to manage and survive the first three crucial months of lockdown since March 2020 where most of us were forced to stay at the premises of our homes. At that time, the operations of most of cooperatives in this province were badly hit. The business operation was frozen for a moment. Cooperatives did what they do best – cooperate.
But while most of us enjoyed the comforts of our homes, some unsung heroes composed of directors, officers and staff of select cooperatives in Iloilo went out of their ways to alleviate the hunger and pain of losing almost everything to covid-19. Let us take a close look at the case of Southern Iloilo Area Multipurpose Cooperative (SIAMPC) in Oton, Iloilo.
Using their community development fund, SIAMPC augmented five sacks of rice to the relief operation of the municipal government of Oton. SIAMPC Directors Alfredo J. Jancinal and Engr. Stephen Geroche also sponsored food packs for over 114 trike drivers who were mostly operating in the public market where their business office was located.
“We pitied the trike drivers who lost their income at that time. So we asked our directors that we should also give something for them and they agreed to give food packs containing not only rice but vegetables,” SIAMPC Manager Antonio Cabarles said. He added that the trike drivers were the marginalized sector severely affected by the pandemic. If hunger could not be cured, some might resort to lawlessness, he pointed out.
SIAMPC availed of loan from Governor Arthur D. Defensor Jr.’s Mangunguma Sapnayon: Palay Price Support Program as additional capital to their rice trading business in December 2019. When the pandemic hit and the demand for rice went off the roof, SIAMPC sold out their rice supply including 154 bags of rice to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, San Jose Multipurpose Cooperative and selected barangays for their relief operations.
It has also maintained their 300 square feet vegetable garden, harvested and sold 400 kilos of sweet corn, planted more bananas and other variety of vegetables for commercial use. While others were dormant and unproductive, SIAMPC took the time to construct their storage facility for rice hull, installed their canopy, roofing for their vermin facility, repaired their warehouse fences, rice hull bin on their rice processing complex and modified the back of their dump truck.
Moreover, it has provided hazard pay of P100 ($2.00) per day to its management staff who relentlessly offered their service and helping hand from March 17-May 15, 2020. SIAMPC has also adjusted their ways of doing business to conform to safety standards and protocol to prevent the transmission of covid-19. It has likewise offered a home delivery service option of their agricultural products like fertilizers to their farmer-member clients.
SIAMPC has set a precedent that cooperation was the key to beat the challenges of covid-19 pandemic. It believed that “everyday there is a challenge and that challenge is a guide for change and development.”
