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What a cooperative actually is
A cooperative is an organization owned and controlled by the very people it serves, called members, rather than by outside shareholders chasing profit. Members pool resources, usually through share capital and savings, so the group can offer things like loans, discounted goods, or shared services that would be harder for any one member to arrange alone. In the Philippines, this structure is formally defined and governed by the Philippine Cooperative Code, Republic Act 9520, which sets out how a cooperative must be organized, capitalized, and run.