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TOLEDO CITY, Philippines - Most people think business in Toledo City has stopped when Atlas mining ceased operations in 1994.
Unknown to many, a group of 42 individuals ? some, former mine workers ? has managed to make another industry survive.
They turn wood pieces into furniture items.
To make the business thrive, the group formed the Don Andres Soriano Village 2 (Dasvo) Multipurpose Cooperative in 2002.
?Nagpatawag mi og tigom para maistoryahan ang kabahin sa coop. Kada miyembro naay shared capital nga P1,500 bayran (We called for a meeting to talk about the cooperative. Each member should give a shared capital of P1,500 paid) in a staggered basis,? said Dasvo vice chairman Leopoldo Dela Peña.
Members have the option to contribute more than P1,500. Because the contributions were done on a staggered basis, the cooperative only has an initial capital of P6,000.
The money was used to buy raw materials, Dela Peña said.
Dasvo applied for accreditation from the Cooperative Development Agency (CDA). It was approved in 2003.
Organizing the people was not difficult because they had been working with each other when Atlas mining was still operational.
During those years, Dela Peña said, Atlas assisted them in managing the furniture business under the company's socio-economic development project.
Aside from furniture, the group made gloves and rags that were supplied to the different towns and cities in Cebu province.
Today, the cooperative also produces safety shoes for the 5,000 workers of Carmen Copper Corporation (CCC), an Atlas subsidiary that operates the Toledo copper mine.
The shoemaking venture started in June 2008. The shoes carry the brand C3 Safety Shoes.
?They already have a captured market for these shoes so it will not be hard for them to market them (shoes),? said Rodrigo Cal, CCC vice president and resident manager.
Cal said around P500,000 will be released to the cooperative this year to support the shoe manufacturing business of the cooperative as part of the company's Social Development and Management Program (SDMP).
The cooperative?s personnel were busy working on some shoe and furniture pieces when visited the factory in Barangay (village) Das last Saturday.
?We have P9.8 million-contract with DepEd (Department of Education). We won the bidding last May 20. We are providing the teachers' chairs and tables and students' armchairs for Region 7,? said cooperative bookkeeper Vicenta Tingson.
Tingson said 132 workers are assigned to work on the three areas of production?furniture items, rags and gloves, and shoes.
She said furniture items are sold to companies and households in Cebu, while rags and gloves are sold to the different dealers and distributors in the Visayas.
Rags are sold at P35 per kilo, while gloves are sold at P72 per dozen.
A pair of low-cut safety shoes costs P1,175 while a pair of high-cut safety shoes costs P1,275. These are sold to CCC workers.
The cooperative workers make the upper portion of the shoes.
These will then be shipped to Pan Pacific Industrial Sales Co. in Manila and attached to the soles through shoe injection machine.
Pan Pacific was tapped by CCC to help the cooperative in making the safety shoes.
The shoes will then be returned to Toledo and cooperative members will do the finishing touches such as putting on the shoe laces.
Tingson said it takes about three weeks, including shipment, before one pair of shoes is made.
?The (CCC) workers are already the captured market of the cooperative. The workers change shoes every six months so after this duration, they (cooperative) have new orders again,? said CCC community relations officer Wendel Martin Cabrera.
Tingson said they delivered 300 pairs of shoes last October 15. The full amount of P342,650 was paid to the cooperative last December 22.
A second delivery of 400 pairs was made on December 24. Payment, worth P457,500, is expected to be given on January 15.
Tingson said they are making 500 pairs of safety shoes at present.
Asked how they manage to focus on Dasvo's three products, Dela Peña said: ?We carefully assign the workers for each product and system that ensures products made are recorded.?
The cooperative also has a mediation committee, which takes care of any conflict.
Running for six years now, Dasvo II MPC has come a long way from producing furniture, rags and gloves to safety shoes.
But the cooperative members believe that their patience made the ventures successful.
?You need to be more patient if you handle a group. People are hard to manage. Problems are normal but if leaders communicate well and (are) transparent, it will not be hard to solve them,? Dela Peña said.
