The Dacongcogon Producers Cooperative Marketing Association members will hold a rally today at the office of the Cooperative Development Authority to push for the approval of its petition for a special general assembly.

The group also wants to have a dialog with Presidential Adviser Rafael Coscolluela and Sugar Regulatory Administration chairman James Ledesma to discuss various issues affecting the cooperative. In a petition filed with the CDA, planter-members of DPCMA stated that Wilfredo Miraflores Sr., chairman of the board denied their request for a special general assembly saying that it barely qualifies as recognition of the socio-economic dimension of the Dacongcogon mill.

The DPCMA members, however, argued that an assembly is needed to recover possession of the mill and to repair and prepare it for operation for the next crop year.

The group said it also would like to call attention to the alleged commission of unlawful acts, gross negligence and acts of bad faith causing the failure of the mill to operate for one year, revenue losses, mass termination of workers, actual injuries and damage and losses to the members.

The DPCMA members, said their petition that P300 million worth of losses was incurred after the mill failed to operate for one year.

Since the DPCMA Board, through Miraflores, denied their request for a general assembly, the members urged the CDA to grant their petition as the honorable authority to dispose of the issue. They said they were able to reach the required number to make up 10 percent of the members who petitioned for a general assembly.

The group also said that flagrant patent violation of the by-laws of the Cooperative Code was committed by the DPCMA directors and officials, contrary to the ideals of cooperativism.

They called on the CDA to assert its supervisory authority and rescue the 10,000 regular and associate members of the cooperative from the present state of affairs.*NB

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