By Rene V. Carbayas
ISABELA CITY, Basilan – The Basilan Peace and Development Coordinating Committee, also known as Team Basilan,
conducted consultative meetings and workshops with stakeholders of the Sta.
Clara Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Integrated Development Cooperative, Inc.
(SCARBIDCI) to resolve certain issues confronting the cooperative.
On June 19, Team Basilan visited the
cooperative, met and talked with the different stakeholders to gather
information and consult the affected workers on the prevailing issues to find
ways to address the problems besetting the cooperative.
The cooperative’s problems reached
Team Basilan some three or four months ago from the report of 104th
Brigade Commander Col. Carlito Galvez who asked the provincial government to
intervene in the crisis the cooperative is experiencing. Since then, the team
had been tackling the concerns in its meetings until it decided to hold
consultations.
On June 12, a sit-down strike was
held by a small group of affected workers and individuals who demanded the
release of their salaries. The workers have complained that the cooperative was
remiss in religiously paying their salaries on time. The workers have also complained
of mismanagement, thus, calling for reforms.
The workers said they are highly
dependent on their salaries to put food on the table and to provide for other
needs of their families, more particularly the needs of their students.
Col. Galvez said “the problem of
SCARBIDCI is like a ticking time bomb waiting to be ignited.” “Before it happens, the government must
already find ways to intervene and help the cooperative resolve its miseries,”
he said.
Local Cooperative Development
Authority (CDA) officer Marilou Cruz said the cooperative had already
accumulated some P176 million of debt from internal and external transactions.
As a result, she said, “conflict arises between persons and groups for failure
of the coop to meet their needs and or what is due them.”
SCARBIDCI is one of the oldest and
biggest agrarian reform community in Basilan with rubber as its major product.
Other product output include coconut, charcoal, banana, oil. With the growing debt,
the coop contracted and sought the help of a “financier” to continue its
operation. With the delay in salaries, affected workers feel that the contract
was violated.
The members of Team Basilan also fear that the problems
besetting SCARBIDCI might be also happening to other agrarian reform
cooperatives in Basilan.
Last year, the team also tried to help in resolving the
crisis in Tumajubong cooperative (Tumahubong Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries
Integrated Development Cooperative) with similar operational and financial
problems, exacerbated by a series of shooting incidents that victimized some of
its workers. (PIA9)