By Estanislao Albano, Jr.

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – While many cooperatives in the country grapple with lack of liquidity, there is a growing number of cooperatives in Northern Luzon (NL)whose problem is where to put their idle funds.

Cooperative consultant Audie Joseph Samson said during the congress for cooperatives and managers in Cagayan de Oro City last week that from his personal observation, three out of 10 cooperatives in NL have problems with excess liquidity.

Samson who used to be the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Victo, the cooperative center in the Visayas, put the problem down to the cautiousness of most cooperatives in NL.

Petra Baguiwen, CEO of the Tabuk Multi-purpose Cooperative (TAMPCO), one of the Cordillera cooperatives which participated in the congress affected by the unusual problem, accepted that their idle funds has ballooned to P203M as of July 2010 because they are averse to taking risks.

“Due to bad experiences in the stock market in the past, we do not want to place our money in high-yielding but high risk investments. We just invest it in the banks,” Baguiwen informed.

By Estanislao Albano, Jr.

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The joint venture which obtained a geothermal service contract (GSC) over a geothermal resource in the towns of Pasil, Lubuagan and Tinglayan, Kalinga might be serious in pursuing the project after all.

This after Guidance Management Corporation (GMC) and its local partner Aragorn Power and Energy Corporation (APEC) started complying with their obligations under their memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the affected sub-tribes to provide scholarships for college students coming from these sub-tribes.

National Commission on Indigenous Peoples provincial director Natividad Sugguiyao informed the media that each of the nine sub-tribes which so far have given their consent to the geothermal project namely Balatoc, Colayo, Guinaang, Dalupa and Ableg/Dangtalan in Pasil, Uma in Lubuagan municipality and Bangad, Tinglayan and Dananao in Tinglayan municipality were granted 15 scholarships each.