Creation of cooperative dev’t office mulled

THE City Council committee on cooperatives chaired by Councilor Enrico Salcedo thoroughly discussed the proposed ordinance creating the People Empowerment and Cooperative Development Office (PECDO).

This ordinance provides that the city shall ensure the viability and growth of civil societies and cooperatives as instruments of social justice, equity, self-reliance, economic development, people’s organization and people empowerment.

It further declared as a policy of the city to ensure a comprehensive approach to poverty reduction where sustained and inclusive economic growth is needed to improve the quality of life of its population, with responsive and targeted interventions to reach the very poor and marginalized sectors of the city’s economy.

DISCUSSION

One of the highlights of the discussion last Friday was the provision of Section 5 which is the organizational structure and staffing pattern of PECDO.

Based on the proposed ordinance, there are three sections of the PECDO office which composed five or four positions each: the Operations Section, Administrative Support Section and Information, Education and Research Section.

Representative of the City Budget Office suggested that the proposed ordinance will be referred to the Local Finance Committee (LFC) for further study since, she said, it entails another appropriation.

For her part, Councilor Annie Daba, chair of the committee on agriculture and fisheries and member of the committee on cooperatives, proposed that in determining positions for the said office, employees must be from the other offices that fit to the qualifications for such position.

“Mas maayo nga sa other offices mag pull out og employees para makasave pud”, she stressed.

Councilor Salcedo said the committee will invite heads of offices of LFC, Human Resource Management Office (HRMO), City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (CLENRO), City Improvement Division (CID), and City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) for further discussions. (JBD)