News

One of our Board of Directors, Jay Calma, has left DXC Technology and although he will stay with HPPEMC as an Associate Member, he had to step down from the Board as mandated by the Bylaws (i.e. only Regular Members can hold elective positions). 

In its meeting dated October 10, 2019, the Board has elected Jeffrey Paradero as new member of the Board to replace Jay. Jeff has been with the Cooperative for 3 years and has been part of the Education Committee. He will serve for the unexpired term of Jay which is until March 2020 or until a successor is named. 

Please join us in congratulating Jeff in his new role and in thanking Jay for his many contributions to our cooperative.

Our Chairperson, Johann Hunter Molo, has left HP Philippines and has resigned from the HPPEMC Board effective September 30, 2019. Johann will continue to be with HP but he will be based in Singapore. Since the HPPEMC Bylaws mandate that only Philippine-based employees can become Regular Members and hold elective positions, Johann will have to step down as Chairperson. He will however continue as Associate Member.

As provided for in the Bylaws, the Board conducted an election among themselves and elected our current Vice-Chairperson, Kathryn Salangsang-Garcia, as the new Chairperson to serve the remaining term of Johann. Likewise, the Board has elected Prima Mae Espadon as the new Vice-Chairperson. 

In line with this, the Board has appointed Job Anthony "Ogie" Cortezano as new member of the Board to replace Johann. Ogie will serve for the unexpired term of Johann which is until March 2021 or until a successor is named.

Please join us in congratulating Kat, PM, and Ogie in their new roles and in thanking Johann for his many contributions to our cooperative.

Although HPP Employees Multipurpose Cooperative can be considered as one of the fastest growing cooperatives in the country with its P60M in Assets and more than 1,200 members in just 5 years, it did not stop HPPEMC from trying to learn from and benchmark itself against other bigger and more established cooperatives in the country.

On September 23-24, 2019, HPPEMC visited three large cooperatives to try to learn more about their operation, their history, best practices, success stories, and cooperative management. Dubbed as Lakbay-Aral, these educational tours are a practice among cooperatives as part of Cooperative Principle #6 – Cooperation Among Cooperatives – where cooperatives help each other for their collective growth.

The HPPEMC Lakbay-Aral 2019 started at 6am on Monday, September 23 where some officers and staff met at McKinley Hill in Taguig. Our first stop was the Baclaran Vendors Development Cooperative. At around 8:30am, the HPPEMC delegates were welcomed by several BVDC officers and staff led by their CEO, Mr. Sonny Regencia. Mr Regencia shared with us that BVDC was organized 42 years ago, in 1977, more due to a necessity faced by some Baclaran vendors at that time who were forced to vacate their stalls to give way to building renovation. Since they lack the capital needed to get new stall rights, these vendors were forced to borrow money from the “5-6” loan sharks. To save the vendors from these usurious interest rates, the founders decided to organize the vendors into a cooperative. They were able to gather 250 vendors and were able to generate P33,000.00 as starting share capital.

Owing to good governance and the continued patronage of its members, BVDC steadily grew. And in just 10 years of operation, BVDC was able to buy its own lot in Baclaran and build a 4-storey building. BVDC then became one of the few cooperatives at that time with its own building.

BVDC has since expanded to other public markets in Pasay and Cavite to try to help their fellow vendors in the area. Today, BVDC has grown to more than P400M in Assets with more than 6,000 members.

Next, the group went to Paranaque to visit the San Dionisio Credit Cooperative. It was around 12NN when we reached SDCC. After a sumptuous lunch courtesy of SDCC, we were officially welcomed by SDCC officers led by their CEO, Ms. Cielito Garrido.

SDCC is a community-based cooperative that was founded in 1961 by 28 founding members with a starting share capital of P380.00. Today, SDCC is one of the oldest and most successful cooperatives in the country with more than 20,000 members and P2B in Assets.

Ms. Garrido shared that although SDCC is a very successful cooperative today, that was not always the case particularly in the early years of SDCC. There were a lot of challenges and doubts early on particularly as SDCC is a community-based cooperative, which is more difficult to run than institutional or employee-based cooperatives like HPPEMC.

But through hard work and perseverance of the founding members, SDCC was able to overcome all of those challenges and brought SDCC to where it is today. Ms. Garrido emphasized that for a cooperative to succeed, strong volunteerism is important. After more than 50 years, and even with all their successes, Ms. Garrido is proud to say that their officers and Board of Directors still don’t get any compensation. They are still all volunteers. Her challenge, therefore, to the HPPEMC officers present is to be able to inspire future leaders to have the same passion and “malasakit” as the original founders and to continue running HPPEMC with a higher purpose of service and cooperativism.

At around 2:30PM, we left for Batangas for our third and last cooperative to visit. It was 4:30PM when we reached Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative. We were welcomed by Ms. Arlene King, Executive Assistant to the CEO, since the CEO, Hon. Cong. Rico Geron (AGAP Partylist), was not available.

Through Ms. King, we learned that SIDC was first founded in 1969 as Sorosoro Ibaba Farmers’ Association with 59 founding members and P11,800.00 initial share capital. It’s first business was a Sari-Sari Store. Today, SIDC has gone a long way from a mere Sari-Sari Store owner to a cooperative of more than P3B in Assets, with around 35,000 members, and close to 1,200 employees. They have since diversified into multiple businesses, all in the service of their members. These businesses include feeds mill, fertilizer production, savings and loans services, supermarket, convenience stores, hardware store, gas stations, resort, cable TV, Internet service, printing services, and egg layer farm. We were also pleasantly surprised when we learned that SIDC runs SAP.

It was already dark when we left the SIDC head office. We proceeded to Sorosoro Springs, the resort owned by SIDC, to spend the night and to try to capture all the learnings from the three coops visited and how to replicate them in HPPEMC.Ms. Nonalyn Hermogenes, our accredited CDA trainer, facilitated the discussion. 

The workshop continued the following morning with the team laying out plans that we can adopt into our own cooperative. On our way home, we passed by SIDC’s chicken egg layer farm in Ibaan, Batangas, where the group was treated to a tour of the premises and a demo of the egg-sorter machine.

Everyone agreed that the 2-day Lakbay-Aral has been a success. The group went home inspired and full of learnings from all the sharing and guided tours that were generously given by our “big brother” coops. The team saw for themselves, how even small cooperatives, with an almost impossible task, can accomplish great things with focused leadership and by putting service above all.

As part of its becoming a multipurpose cooperative, HPPEMC has launched its own eCommerce site, HPP Mart Online where members can get products being carried by the coop at specially discounted rates for members. 

Initially, the store contains products made from Stevia, a healthy herbal plant. As previously announced, we have partnered with ANCI (Amazing Nature Care International) to distribute their Stevia products. Given the nature of work of its members where many stay seated in front of the computer for hours, working in shifts, and don't get enough physical activity, HPPEMC has recognized the need to promote these healthy alternatives.

Stevia is a natural sweetener that's 200 times sweeter than sugar but without the negative side effects. It contains zero calories, zero cholesterol, zero sugar, and has zero glycemic index. Studies have shown that Stevia has the following benefits:

• Lowers blood pressure
• Lowers blood sugar levels
• Controls diabetes
• Oral health
• Skin health
• Weight loss
• Cancer prevention
• Lowers cholesterol levels
• Osteoporosis prevention

Currently, HPP Mart Online is exclusive to members only as the system is still in the fine-tuning stage. Members can choose to pay cash, salary deduction, or credit card. Products can be picked up at the HPPEMC !PC and ETON offices or can be delivered*.

The true power of cooperatives is in numbers. Cooperatives leverage on their numbers to be able to offer the best products at the best price to its members. Thus, HPPEMC members are encouraged to patronize the site so more products can be offered at lower prices in the future.

"Our Pomegranate Coffee, for example, is an 'all-in-one' coffee mix. It has the best of supplements and doesn't have the negative effects of sugar. These products are keto-friendly too. So if you are buying 3-in-1s for your households anyway, why not switch to one of our stevia coffees? Not only that you are patronizing our cooperative, but you are also keeping yourself, and your family, healthy in the process.", shared HPPEMC CEO, Val Hilario.

You can check the HPP Mart Online site at --> https://mart.hpp.coop