History Repeat Itself
There is a saying that “history is just repeating itself”.
In 1987, the OVERSEAS CONTRACT WORKERS & FAMILY CREDIT COOPERATIVE, INC. or OCWFCCI was registered as the 1st Primary Credit Cooperative in the Philippines whose common bond of association is OCCUPATIONAL whose members were Overseas Contract Workers and Family. OCW was the term used to describe Filipinos who are working in other countries as contract workers during 1980s.
The beginning of the 1st OCW Coop was simple yet it had Big Dream, to empower OCWs towards establishing the 1st Overseas Workers Bank from the pooled resources of Filipinos by sharing in its capitalization. A bank of OCWs, by the OCWs, and for the OCWs. They started with 15 visionary members under the founding leadership of Manuel C. Adiova, FPM, PhDM who pooled their resources together with US$100 each, majority of whom were OCWs in Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and expanded through out the Middle East and even Asia in Hong Kong. The cooperative office was in Tramo Street, Pasay City with staffs who were all volunteers, and No Compensation at All.
In 1987, the OVERSEAS CONTRACT WORKERS & FAMILY CREDIT COOPERATIVE, INC. or OCWFCCI was registered as the 1st Primary Credit Cooperative in the Philippines whose common bond of association is OCCUPATIONAL whose members were Overseas Contract Workers and Family. OCW was the term used to describe Filipinos who are working in other countries as contract workers during 1980s.
The beginning of the 1st OCW Coop was simple yet it had Big Dream, to empower OCWs towards establishing the 1st Overseas Workers Bank from the pooled resources of Filipinos by sharing in its capitalization. A bank of OCWs, by the OCWs, and for the OCWs. They started with 15 visionary members under the founding leadership of Manuel C. Adiova, FPM, PhDM who pooled their resources together with US$100 each, majority of whom were OCWs in Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and expanded through out the Middle East and even Asia in Hong Kong. The cooperative office was in Tramo Street, Pasay City with staffs who were all volunteers, and No Compensation at All.
Challenges in the Coop Service
Remittances Services was one of the challenges at that time for OCWs on how to speed-up the remittances that usually took weeks or months to arrive at their beneficiaries back home because only Philippine National Bank was servicing the Filipino remittances in that part of the world, communication was so difficult, letters took month before it reach the family. The computer and internet is just booming in the United States and the technology is expensive.
To help speed-up the remittances, the members in Saudi Arabia were collecting the money remittances of the members, send the coded messages through telex to the cooperative office in Pasay City, decodes the messages and deliver the money remittances door-to-door to the family of the members as far as north and south of Luzon. Risky? It was. The money collected abroad were sent to Manila by whatever means possible to replenish the cash at the Pasay Office. Sometimes hand-carried by returning OCWs some of whom are not even members. Risky? Of course it was but there was no other way. The cooperative charged the remitting members a flat rate cheaper than the banking system plus the delivery expenses as income of the cooperative. The remittance receive from the members are being delivered directly to the family to protect its family members from robbery and holdup, thus term PERA-PADALA was coined literally by members as they always say "Pare, Padala ng Pera".
Loans Services are some of the common OCWs need for emergency money of just for basic family needs. The cooperative lends money to be paid when the borrowing members got their salaries. Interests were collected as income of the cooperative.
OCWs were very loving and caring, and to socialize. OCWFCCI created the service Social Rewards for family and friends through Hatid-Bahay Family Surprises (HBFS) during occasions like Birthdays, Anniversaries, Valentines, Christmas, or any family occasions. OCWs sent surprises to their families through the cooperative as simple as greeting cards up to cakes and even litchon were delivered door-to-door at the day of the occasions. The Singing Gram was invented by the coop to melt the hearts of there love ones. It was a vision of the coop founder that coop members will Earn From Everything They Buy from partner merchants returning back the money they spend as benefit incentives as consumer within the network affiliated businesses linking all Credit Consumer Cooperative as patronage support of members the cooperative enterprise.
With the ever popular HBFS Service to coop members the Door-to-Door Service was conceive, and such services has expanded to Kabayan Cargo Delivery, and OCW Member Hatid-Sundo from Airport Pick-up to Family Home Destination and vice versa.
OCW Bank - the ultimate dream. The minimum capitalization at that time for a commercial bank was PhP 200 Million, talks with Late Senator Raul Roco, Committee Chair for Banking & Finance. The question was… can the cooperative pool the money needed to open such a huge project. The answer was a question, if 10% of the OCWs then who numbered at around 5 Million were willing to invest their US$100 @ PhP14.00 to a Dollar rate, PhP 700 Million was easy to raise. The project did not materialize at that time due to vacuum of leadership, the succeeding cooperative leaders just did not have the same vision and dedication to their predecessors, the big project was abandoned that could have alleviated the flight of the OCWs now called OFWs. OCWFCCI died down a natural death.
To help speed-up the remittances, the members in Saudi Arabia were collecting the money remittances of the members, send the coded messages through telex to the cooperative office in Pasay City, decodes the messages and deliver the money remittances door-to-door to the family of the members as far as north and south of Luzon. Risky? It was. The money collected abroad were sent to Manila by whatever means possible to replenish the cash at the Pasay Office. Sometimes hand-carried by returning OCWs some of whom are not even members. Risky? Of course it was but there was no other way. The cooperative charged the remitting members a flat rate cheaper than the banking system plus the delivery expenses as income of the cooperative. The remittance receive from the members are being delivered directly to the family to protect its family members from robbery and holdup, thus term PERA-PADALA was coined literally by members as they always say "Pare, Padala ng Pera".
Loans Services are some of the common OCWs need for emergency money of just for basic family needs. The cooperative lends money to be paid when the borrowing members got their salaries. Interests were collected as income of the cooperative.
OCWs were very loving and caring, and to socialize. OCWFCCI created the service Social Rewards for family and friends through Hatid-Bahay Family Surprises (HBFS) during occasions like Birthdays, Anniversaries, Valentines, Christmas, or any family occasions. OCWs sent surprises to their families through the cooperative as simple as greeting cards up to cakes and even litchon were delivered door-to-door at the day of the occasions. The Singing Gram was invented by the coop to melt the hearts of there love ones. It was a vision of the coop founder that coop members will Earn From Everything They Buy from partner merchants returning back the money they spend as benefit incentives as consumer within the network affiliated businesses linking all Credit Consumer Cooperative as patronage support of members the cooperative enterprise.
With the ever popular HBFS Service to coop members the Door-to-Door Service was conceive, and such services has expanded to Kabayan Cargo Delivery, and OCW Member Hatid-Sundo from Airport Pick-up to Family Home Destination and vice versa.
OCW Bank - the ultimate dream. The minimum capitalization at that time for a commercial bank was PhP 200 Million, talks with Late Senator Raul Roco, Committee Chair for Banking & Finance. The question was… can the cooperative pool the money needed to open such a huge project. The answer was a question, if 10% of the OCWs then who numbered at around 5 Million were willing to invest their US$100 @ PhP14.00 to a Dollar rate, PhP 700 Million was easy to raise. The project did not materialize at that time due to vacuum of leadership, the succeeding cooperative leaders just did not have the same vision and dedication to their predecessors, the big project was abandoned that could have alleviated the flight of the OCWs now called OFWs. OCWFCCI died down a natural death.
1st OFW Coop - The vision lives on
In the inception of the First OCW Coop the vision and mission is handed down from father to son is now forge once again, the dream that nobody envisage to take into action.
After 26 years the legacy and aspiration is now being continued as parallelism vision between the Overseas Contract Workers & Family Credit Cooperative (OCWFCCI) and juanREWARDS Multipurpose Cooperative (jRMC) as the 1st OFW Cooperative for new unsung heroes be rewarded of all there sacrifices for the Country, and for the Family.
The parable of Juan Tamad transformed into industrious and visionary Juan in now the people behind the proposed juanREWARDS Multipurpose Cooperative (hereinafter called jRMC for this writing). There is renaissance of vision and ideas of the OCWFCCI in jRMC and more vigor, energy and commitment.
juanREWARDS was McMOUNT Foundations' Social Enterprise Project for its First World Philippines Mission together with its foundations official volunteer - the CORPS OF PEACE (Corps of People Empowered to Aide the Community and Environment).
After 26 years the legacy and aspiration is now being continued as parallelism vision between the Overseas Contract Workers & Family Credit Cooperative (OCWFCCI) and juanREWARDS Multipurpose Cooperative (jRMC) as the 1st OFW Cooperative for new unsung heroes be rewarded of all there sacrifices for the Country, and for the Family.
The parable of Juan Tamad transformed into industrious and visionary Juan in now the people behind the proposed juanREWARDS Multipurpose Cooperative (hereinafter called jRMC for this writing). There is renaissance of vision and ideas of the OCWFCCI in jRMC and more vigor, energy and commitment.
juanREWARDS was McMOUNT Foundations' Social Enterprise Project for its First World Philippines Mission together with its foundations official volunteer - the CORPS OF PEACE (Corps of People Empowered to Aide the Community and Environment).