The PPP Code and its implementing rules and regulations (IRR) deliberately adopt an inclusive definition of “private proponent,” allowing cooperatives to participate, bid, and partner with the government in delivering public infrastructure and development projects and services.
This policy choice is significant, reflecting a conscious effort to align PPPs with cooperativism, people’s participation, and inclusive growth. It opens the door for people-owned and people-managed enterprises to become partners in development.
Where cooperatives fit
The PPP Code recognizes that a private partner may take various juridical forms, including cooperatives, provided they possess the legal personality, technical capacity, financial capability, and track record required for the project.
Under the IRR, a cooperative entering into a PPP must be registered under the Cooperative Development Authority.
Cooperatives are particularly well-suited for local and community-level PPP projects, such as:
These projects benefit from local knowledge, community trust, and long-term presence, which cooperatives often possess more naturally than distant corporate entities.
Inclusivity does not mean lowering standards. The PPP Code and IRR remain firm: track record and capacity matter. Cooperatives seeking to participate as PPP proponents must demonstrate:
This ensures that public assets and services are protected while still enabling non-traditional private partners to participate.
Governance standards
Because cooperatives are member-driven and often community-embedded, potential conflicts of interest may arise such as when cooperative officers are also local officials or when beneficiaries overlap with decision-makers.
To avoid or address these conflicts, governance standards must be adopted, such as:
People-powered PPPs
By allowing cooperatives to act as private proponents, the PPP Code reinforces the idea that PPPs are not driven by concrete alone, but by people, participation, and shared responsibility. When structured properly, PPPs with cooperatives transform infrastructure and development projects into platforms for:
PPPs and cooperativism are not contradictory models. Under the PPP Code, they are complementary tools for nation-building. By opening PPP participation to qualified cooperatives, the law affirms that development infrastructure can be both professionally managed and people-owned.
In this sense, PPPs become not only partnerships between government and private entities, but partnerships with the people themselves.
Through cooperativism, PPPs for and with the People move from promise to practice.
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