John Philip Orbeta, the newly-designated Chairman of the Board of the Ayala Coop, paid tribute to the Coop’s pioneers and leaders as the Coop recently celebrated its 22nd anniversary and its ascent as one of the biggest, most progressive in the country with a month-long list of activities.
Orbeta, the current managing director and group head of Ayala Corporation’s Corporate Resources, keynoted the program at the 1851 Dining Hall that followed a thanksgiving mass at the Bank of the Philippine Islands Head Office Chapel formally marking the Coop’s 22nd year last October 16. The program was attended by several committee chairpersons and members of the Coop.
Orbeta explained that the Coop is now under the new umbrella group AC Synergy created with the objective of bringing together all Ayala employee endeavors for greater coordination, and the Coop’s having become part of the group is a recognition of the phenomenal strides it has made to achieve its current stature.
‘Phenomenal growth’
“This phenomenal growth has helped Ayala Group employees in so many ways such that the Coop has become a way of life for them, a lifeline that has become indispensable in their existence as members of the conglomerate itself,” Orbeta said. “The Coop has helped thousands of Ayala employees – both executives and rank-and-file alike – in their microfinancing needs while also providing them an excellent vehicle for savings.
“That the Ayala Coop has reached its current magnitude – where its assets alone have grown by 221 percent from P745 million in 2010 to P2.39 billion this year, and its share capital has risen by 250 percent from P640 million to P2.24 billion over the same period – is a tribute to the many men and women who worked hard, nurtured dreams and never gave up during the Coop’s difficult days.”
Good work
Orbeta, who has been designated head of AC Synergy, then commended his predecessor as chairman, BPI’s Randy Maranan, and the Coop’s vice chairman, Integrated Microelectronics Inc.’s Jimmy Sanchez, for the good work they have done over the past seven years.
The program where Coop General Manager Dina Orosa presented the Coop’s major accomplishments under Maranan and Sanchez also saw four Coop employees being given service awards for having faithfully served the association for at least five years. They are Emily Montino and Gemma Magalona, who have served the Coop in the last 15 years, Frances Joy de Asis who has been with the Coop for the last 10 years, and Norayda Navarra who has worked with the Coop for the last five years. All of them received plaques of appreciation and the commensurate cash incentives.
Spicing up the program was the daughter-mother tandem of Tanya and Tina Diaz, who rendered several song numbers. Tanya was among the Top 10 contestants of the popular TV program The Voice Season 2.
HR Summit
Shortly after the anniversary program, the Coop also held the Ayala Coop HR Partners Summit on October 20 at the Evolving Audio Visual Room of Nuvali. Some 48 HR coordinators from 29 different Ayala companies – including BPI, IMI, Manila Water, the Automobile Group, Ayala Land and Ayala Corporation subsidiaries – attended the activity.
The summit consisted of updates from the Coop by its various department heads as well as a teambuilding session where the Green team, one of four into which the participants were divided, emerged as overall champion.
As part of the month-long anniversary celebration, the Coop also spearheaded a bloodletting activity on October 12 at the 25th Floor of Tower One, where some 66 bags of blood were collected from 111 volunteers. All volunteers were treated to free massage and taho while those from whom blood was extracted additionally received loot bags containing vitamins, notepad, fan and balut.
Benefit show
A benefit show was likewise sponsored by the Coop on October 21, where special guests, families, educators and scholars of its beneficiary, the HERO Foundation, were treated to a stage play version of the famous Beauty and the Beast movie at Onstage of Greenbelt 1. Among the special guests who watched were representatives from the Department of Agriculture, the Cooperative Development Authority, and the Makati Cooperative Development Office, Coop committee members and HR coordinators, and members of the Coop team and their families. All of them were treated to loot bags of candies after the show.
Climaxing the anniversary celebration during the month was the 2017 KoopBida Awards (see separate story), where the Coop was proclaimed by the Makati Cooperative Development Office as the best-performing coop in 2016 in terms of total assets, membership growth, and significant concern for community projects nationwide.
