CALL TO ACTION OF THE “1ST NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HOUSING SUMMIT” Presented by: Ms. Doris Canares, PCC Chairperson

I. Legal Basis Article 2 of Republic Act 9520, also known as the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008, declared the policy of the State to foster the creation and growth of cooperatives as a practical vehicle for promoting self-reliance and harnessing people power towards the attainnment of economic development and social justice.

I. Legal Basis Article 62 paragraph 13 of the same Code states that, “the appropriate housing agencies and government financial institutions shall create a special window for financing housing projects undertaken by cooperatives, with interest rates and terms equal to, better than those given for socialized housing projects. This financing shall be in the form of blanket loans or long-term wholesale loans for qualified cooperatives, without need for individual processing”.

I. Legal Basis Rule I on Housing Cooperatives on Implementing the Special Provisions of the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008 promulgated the rules and regulations for the proper guidance and compliance of housing cooperatives.

II. Importance of Housing Cooperatives in providing housing needs of the Filipino people in support of the national housing program of the Philippine government The Philippine population in 2010 data of the National Statistics Office is registered at 92,337,852 Filipino people. On the otherhand, the data of the National Statistics Census Board (NSCB) on the housing needs or popularly called the “backlog” is recorded at million housing units as of January 1, 2011, the bulk of which are intended for the informal setters households comprising 57.15%. Incremental needs from 2011 to 2017 averages about 729,000 households. It is estimated that by 2017, total housing needs will already reach 6.3 million households.

II. Importance of Housing Cooperatives in providing housing needs to Filipino people in support to the national housing program of the Philippine government A cooperative is an organization that addresses the social, economic and cultural needs of its members. In this context, the cooperative is a partner of the government in providing socialized housing to the community in the area where it operates. Data shows that as of December 2013, there are 22,356 registered cooperatives with 12,676,828 total members or about 13% of the total population. Among these registered cooperatives, there are 34 housing cooperatives and other types of cooperatives that engaged in a housing program benefitting its 1,000 members (housing constructed and awarded). Mostly, the housing program is implemented using the internal funds of the cooperative. There are also accomplishments of cooperatives in providing housing constructions, repairs, renovations by way of accessing financing from cooperatives.

III. Objectives of the 1st National Cooperative Housing Summit Recognizing the needs of the cooperative housing sector, the CDA in coordination with other government agencies is conducting this 1st National Cooperative Housing Summit with the following objectives: To come-up with position paper on issues and concerns confronting the housing cooperatives;

III. Objectives of the Housing Summit Advocate the full implementation of blanket loans as enshrined in Article 62 (13) of R.A. 9520, otherwise known as the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008, and Rule 1 Section 8 of its Implementing Rules and Regulations ; and Promote and inculcate awareness on the programs and projects of government agencies on housing cooperatives.

IV. Declaration We, the cooperative members, officers, and other stakeholders participating in this 1st National Cooperative Housing Summit held this July 17th day of 2014 with the theme “Kooperatibang Pabahay: Kaagapay sa Maunlad na Buhay”, do hereby state and resolutely declare the following:

IV. Declaration a. To make housing cooperatives become a workable solution to the housing needs of the people. b. That in order for the housing cooperatives to succeed as a viable solution to the housing needs of the people, the appropriate infrastructure of support in terms of financial provision (blanket loan) and liberalized guidelines should be put in place.

IV. Declaration Specifically, we call upon our policy makers to address the following concerns raised by the housing cooperatives, other cooperatives engaged in housing projects, during the pre-summit at the regional levels and this national housing summit:

IV. Declaration 1.Problem on land acquisition suitable for housing. There is a need to improve the process of generating data and program on land banking available for housing cooperatives.

IV. Declaration 2. Need to address the high cost of land development and construction. Promotion on the active participation of viable cooperatives to the socialized housing development. 3.Operationalize / implement the tax exemption privileges of housing cooperatives.

IV. Declaration 4. Ensuring that the housing coops comply with government issued permits / licenses required on socialized housing standards. 5.Difficulty / long process in securing titles over the land owned by the housing Cooperatives.

IV. Declaration 6.Inability of housing coops to use tax declaration as collateral to GFIs. 7.Government agencies to provide specific technical assistance to housing coops in the planning, design and development of housing.

We also call on the cooperatives to: a. Form a secondary cooperative (Housing Cooperative Federation) that will help its members advance their issues to concerned government agencies.

b. Organize other types of cooperatives in the community to support the production of contruction / building materials and livelihood activities of the cooperative members such as workers and producer cooperatives. c. Effective property management. d. Maximize the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (JMEC) on Housing Cooperatives as instrument to facilitate the needed technical suppport from the government.

This DECLARATION including the summary of Pre-Summit Outputs, list of cooperatives and participants to this 1st National Cooperative Housing Summit is hereby endorsed FOR THE APPROPRIATE ACTION OF THE CONCERNED AGENCIES AND LEGISLATORS.