Many people look at the cooperative as merely a big financing institution because the only thing they see is money:
As in the case of a cake, if the icing looks good, we are inclined to say that the cake is delicious. But is this a sufficient gauge? NO. Not just the icing. Who among you know the story of the iceberg floating on the sea; a beautiful sight indeed! Who would imagine that underneath the sea’s surface lies the much bigger portion of the iceberg, huge enough to topple down what was at that time such an enormous luxury liner the Titanic. What was one sees on the surface will not be a sufficient gauge.
In a cooperative, how would you know if it is doing well or successful? If it owns a huge building? If it keeps so much money? We would only know if we join in, and just like a cake, if we will have a taste of it so we can determine if it is really delicious. So let us altogether taste the “Cooperative Cake.”
We can see from the candles of the cake the different forms of currency like the PESO, DOLLAR, LIRE (Pounds), DEUTSCHE MARK and the glittering GOLD.
In the cooperative movement the PESO sign symbolizes PEOPLE. These are members who help one another and the officers who sacrifice for the cooperative.
US Dollar Sign stands for Service being provided by the cooperative.
Lire (pounds) sign symbolizes LOVE for one another. That is because we have love for one another and a lofty goal to improve man.
This symbol is not just Deutsche Mark but refers to Development of Man or “total development of man.”
Here we seek to crush the so-called “crab mentality”. In the true spirit of cooperativism, it is the responsibility of those who are “better off” to pull up the less privileged members so that they too can share in the fruits of our success, and we all grow together.
This is notable characteristic of Filipinos that we should live out and nurture such as working through concerted efforts, good manners among the youth and other good practices of Filipinos.
We do not use the cooperative for partisan politics. We can say that we do not favor any candidate, and this is one way of molding our members to intelligently choose whom to elect. Let us vote for candidates who possess Fidelity, Integrity, and Love of Country.
The cooperative is founded on service, love, and compassion. And all these emanate from the “spiritual dimension” of everyone.
So if we define what a cooperative in simpler manner; it is an organization made up of people who help each other because they are happy with the service provided by one another, they have love for one another…
And their noble goals is to TOTAL DEVELOPMENT OF MAN in the Economic, Social, Cultural, Political, and Spiritual Aspects under the guidance, not of Gold but of “GOD.”