CFI goes nationwide

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu CFI Community Cooperative is expanding nationwide after it opened its 14th branch in Quezon City, its first in the Luzon area and in Metro Manila.

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Cebu third district Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia graced the blessing and inauguration last Tuesday.

CFI founding chairman, retired judge Esperanza Garcia, said they have around 100 members initially at the said branch since they started recruitment in October last year.

Director Carolino Mordeno said they are targeting at least half of the more than 2,000 staff and employees of the House of Representatives and other local government units in Quezon City within the year.

The CFI has acquired P14 million worth of lot and building for the said branch.

Director Ramon Dumayac emphasized the need for the coop to have its own building and lot in each branch to entice members.

Dumayac said that they are eyeing Naga City in Bicol and Subic, Pampanga as another expansion for Luzon for this year.

The CFI also inaugurated yesterday its satellite office in Barili town to serve members in southern Cebu.

Former Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia, husband of Esperanza; Rep. Garcia and Dumanjug Mayor Nelson Garcia have graced the occasion. Land Bank of the Philippines vice president Ramon Monteloyola was also present. 

The coop has spent P9 million to acquire the four hectares lot and P2.8 million worth of spacious building just across the Barili District Hospital in barangay Poblacion.

Mordeno, a former regional director of the Department of Education 7, said that they intend to utilize the rest of the area as another branch of CFI’s Lyceum de Cebu by 2015 with pre-school and complete elementary level.

As of end of 2013, the CFI has a total assets of P7 billion with almost 80,000 members in Visayas and Mindanao. (FREEMAN)