COMELEC Approves Ating Koop (Junks Opposition of Coop NATCCO Partylist)

“Verily, we find no reason why ATING KOOP would not be able to contribute to the formulation and enactment of appropriate legislation that will benefit the country as a whole.” With this words, the First Division of the Commission on Elections in its “Resolution” dated November 13, 2009, unanimously approved Ating Koop’s Petition for Registration and Accreditation as a Sectoral Organization in the Party-List System of Representation for the May 10,2010 elections.

The 12-page “Resolution” of the Commission on Elections sustained and upheld the contention of ATING KOOP that it truly represents the cooperative sector. The First Division cited the “voluminous evidence submitted” by ATING KOOP which “convinced” the Commission of “its track record in the cultivation of the cooperative movement”. Moreover, the Commission mentioned that the “field verification reports submitted by the Field Offices prove that ATING KOOP is present in a majority of the region of the country, lending credence to its ability to wage a legitimate campaign.”

Moreover, the “Resolution” dated November 13,2009 dismissed and junked as without merit the opposition filed by the COOP-NATCO Party-List, an incumbent member of the House of Representatives, who argued that Ating Koop’s petition for accreditation should be “denied” for being, among others, “redundant as there are already existing party-list organizations representing cooperatives in Congress ” and that it was “organized by a religious group.”

The COMELEC’s accreditation and registration of ATING-KOOP as a bona-fide Party-List candidate in the May 10,2010 elections was celebrated by its members across the country, from Baguio City, considered the birthplace of the party-list group to the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, where it counts as one of its chapters the Nurjihada MNLF Women’s Multi-purpose Cooperative. It also invigorated and renewed hope in the integrity of the electoral system as the accreditation of the Party-List was anchored on its full compliance with the requirements of the law under Republic Act No. 7941, otherwise known as the “Party-List System Act” and the members’ collective faith in Divine Providence that “truth and justice shall prevail.”

However, the accreditation of ATING KOOP as a party-list Candidate in the May 10, 2010 elections is but the start; the task ahead is for the sectoral organization and its members, both present and future, to work hard to ensure that it will secure maximum representation in the 15th Congress.

The ATING KOOP National Committee, in a clarion call throughout the Philippines, urges its members to stand up and take a very active role in our historic participation in the country’s political arena. The preparedness and readiness of all of ATING KOOP’s Regional, Provincial, City and Municipal Chapters, and our faith in God shall therefore be the key to our victory in May 10, 2010. As optly said by our Chairman, Father Mar Arenas, “blessed are those who work for peace, and the new name for peace, in the words of Pope John Paul II, is “development. Supporting Ating Koop is therefore supporting the people’s development through cooperatives”!

Mabuhay ang Ating Koop! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!