JEDDAH, 12 July 2003 -- PTK2, one the newest Filipino community organizations in the Kingdom, may sound techie and reminiscent of the "Y2K" bug, but it is actually a down-to-earth group with big ambitions.
PTK2 stands for the Filipino words "patak-patak," literally drops/droplets. The group believes that the pooling together of resources and ideas is like saving drops of water in a container for future consumption.
The members of the group, instead of being motivated merely by profit, want to be businessman guided by the spirit of "social entrepreneurship."
Alan Exevea, an accountant and one of the prime movers of the group, said that while the members belong to different professions, they have a vision in common, which is to come up with a viable program for their eventual reintegration into the Philippine economy when they go home.
The group strongly believes that a "concerted and synchronized effort will result in a much larger endeavor."
To achieve that plan, they organized themselves under the cooperative principle, and so the "PTK2 Multi-Purpose Cooperative" was born.
Exevea said PTK2 aims to encourage "thrift and savings mobilization" among its members for capital formation and also to create funds in order to grant loans for productive and providential purposes to its members.
Among their standard policy is capital build-up, lending or microfinance.
The cooperative provides loans to members at a minimal rate.
It also offers business opportunities at home to the members.
Last week the 48 "Kapataks," as the PTK2 members call themselves, gathered at the Tropicana Restaurant in Jeddah for their first general assembly and elected seven directors to lead the group for one year.
Exevea emerged with the highest number of votes. The other directors are Alejandro Llames, Ian Jude Fernandez, Geoffrey Estacio, Bernie Gojo, Sidney Diaz and Roland Santos.
The directors will choose their own executive officers.
In his acceptance speech, Exevea stressed that focus and unity were essential if the cooperative is to succeed. Many other groups with similar plans have failed because they forgot these two factors, he said.