QUEZON City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte is pushing for the creation of cooperative office inside the city hall.
With jobs creation and livelihood as her top advocacies, she vowed to push for the immediate creation of a special office at the city hall that would support and promote local cooperatives.
During a dialogue with Tatalon Transport Service Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Barangay Tatalon, Belmonte cited the need for a dedicated department to cater to the interests of cooperatives.
“I’m all for cooperatives. I’ve been a supporter of cooperative movement,” she said.
The vice mayor, however, said the city government has no agency for cooperatives, even as Quezon City has the most number of registered cooperatives at around 500 in Metro Manila.
“Since we have no such office, we would just depend on the Cooperative Development Authority, a national government agency that serves as a regulatory body of cooperatives all over the country,” she said.
Belmonte vowed to work doubly hard at the city council to enact a proposed ordinance into law mandating the establishment of such department her term ends.
“We really have to encourage the people to form their own cooperatives. To do this, we must have a special office that will help them organize and provide training support, especially in terms of efficient management of resources,” she said.
Belmonte said she believes in the principles of a cooperative — solidarity, democracy, and empowerment of its members.