JEDDAH, 3 October — Edilberto Rufino was elected chairman of the Overseas Filipino Workers Cooperative Council (OFWCC) for 2002-2003 during an assembly of 22 cooperatives at the Tropicana Restaurant last Friday.
Rufino, chairman of the Association of Cabalen Expatriates-Multipurpose Cooperative (ACE-MPC), succeeds Engay Dawood of the Bag-ong Bicol Saro nin Jeddah.
Also elected were: Rudy Carillo, vice chairman; Manny Alkuino, secretary; Pedro Vidal, assistant secretary; Jordan Riodeque, treasurer; Rolly Collado, assistant treasurer; Mohamed Isa de Jesus, auditor; Sammy Aguinaldo, assistant auditor; Jun Serras, PRO; Flor Abunal, assistant PRO; Joe Paduga, Atoy Esguerra, and Ben Garcia, peace officers.
Their one-year-term starts in January, said OFWCC founding chairman Jimmy Leonida. The council religiously rotates its chair to give every member a chance to learn and lead.
The election of Rufino and several other new faces marks the entry of “new” blood into the OFWCC.
Rufino vowed to continue the mission of the OFWCC. “We will continue promoting cooperatives, intensify our education campaigns and will add more livelihood seminars like duck-raising and bakery to our calendar of activities,” he said.
The OFWCC is a non-government organization accredited by the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) in Manila to promote and organize cooperatives in Jeddah. It also helps co-ops in getting registered with CDA.
Through the help of OFWCC, four cooperatives in Jeddah have been registered with the CD, thus far. These are the Filipino Expatriates Multipurpose Cooperative (Filex), Pangasinan Saudi Investors Multipurpose Cooperative (PSIMC), Ilonggo Migrant Workers Multipurpose Cooperative, (IMW-MC), and Bileg ti Ilocano Saudi Arabia (BISA).
PSI has ventured into aquaculture (tilapia farming) with its fishpond in Pangasinan, while IMW is currently negotiating for a franchise in Iloilo City with oil company Petron.
According to Rufino, 10 other cooperatives are currently working for registration with the support of OFWCC. He said registering cooperatives would be much easier if there is an OFW Center in Manila that could help cooperatives in preparing various documents needed for registration.
Registering a cooperative with the CDA is no easy task, say organizers. One of the stringent requirements is a detailed business plan laying out a thorough 5-year profit and loss projection. Most co-ops are still in the processing or have yet to develop their business plans.
After getting the CDA’s nod, however, a co-op is accorded various incentives such as tax exemptions from income of less than 10 million pesos, exemption from import duties for machineries, and priority in bidding for government projects.
The OFWCC is also at the helm of various livelihood and reintegration programs for OFWs. It has sponsored various aquaculture seminars that eventually led the leaders of PSI to venture into this business.
Currently, the council is conducting its 10th computer literacy seminar at the Tropicana Restaurant. This is an 8-week seminar dealing with computer operation, use of the Internet, and computer assembly, aimed to enhance or further develop the knowledge of OFWs in operating a computer.
