PARANAQUE CITY -- The NATCCO Network has announced the search for co-op leaders who will be given the Guillermo Cua Leadership Awards.

This was one of the highlights of the Aurora NATCCO Awards & Gala Night on October 5.  

NATCCO Chief Operating Officer, Daisybelle M. Cabal, gave the rationale and criteria for the Award: “The Guillermo Cua Leadership Award is established to honor and perpetuate the legacy of Mr. Guillermo Cua, a visionary leader and stalwart of the cooperative movement who brought together leaders across different groups in the cooperative movement.”

He served as Chief Executive Officer of MASS-SPECC, then of the NATCCO Network from 2000 to 2004 when he initiated the transformation of NATCCO from a three-tier federation, into a two-tier federation with primary cooperatives becoming direct members of NATCCO.  

The change initially met resistance from leaders of the federations comprising NATCCO at the time, with some federations disaffiliating from NATCCO and withdrawing their financial support. 

But the move got support from many sectors, and was approved by the Board and the General Assembly in 2004.  Thus did the “Transformation Journey” begin.

By 2008, the NATCCO Network assets had reached one billion in assets, and NATCCO membership had grown to more than 300 primary cooperatives.  The NATCCO Network by then had also a large array of services offered to primary cooperatives: training and education, core banking software, ATMs, financial intermediation, Microfinance Innovation in Cooperatives, stabilization fund, enterprise development, housing, memorial services, and advocacies like women and youth leadership development.

Cua was chosen to represent the COOP-NATCCO Partylist in Congress in 2004, and immediately went to work to amend the Cooperative Code of 1990.  

Cua filed House Bills 1123 and 1124 for the revision of the Cooperative Code.  

In 2007, he was diagnosed with cancer, but continued his work in Congress.  It is said by witnesses that literally – in his dying days – he fought in Congress for the tax exemption of cooperatives.  In a wheel chair, as he was fighting cancer, he was in Congress debating with representatives of Dept. of Finance for the inclusion of Articles 60 and 61 or the tax exemption provisions in the Cooperative Code. 

Cua passed away in late 2008, just months before the 2008 Cooperative Code was signed into law.

“The Guillermo P. Cua Leadership Awards recognizes the outstanding leaders who embody the principles and values that Mr. Cua championed promoting excellence in cooperative leadership and fostering a culture of integrity, innovation, and inclusivity.  Cua Leadership Awardees have to meet criteria like: guiding their cooperative to growth, strengthened networking within the cooperative movement, encouraged innovation, have positive impact in their communities, improved the lives of co-op members, and encouraged and raised future leaders,” Ms. Cabal added.