CFI – A HISTORICAL Perspective News & Articles
People often asked what the 3 letters of CFI stood for. For those of us old enough to remember, they stood for Court of First Instance (CFI). It was then the country’s first court people ran to when seeking redress for their grievances. In the hierarchy of courts, it was the first court to hear and decide criminal and civil cases. Thus, the phrase “first instance”.
Our cooperative carried these 3 letters for it started as the cooperative for CFI employees. It all began in 1970 when a small group of court employees, led by its Clerk of Court, the late Judge Esperanza Garcia, decided to form a cooperative as an alternative to the money lenders with whom they were victims of unconscionable usurious loans.
Back then, as it is true today, salaries of employees were barely enough to sustain the growing and increasing expense of raising a family.
Inevitably, they resorted to borrowing from money lenders at very high interests to make both ends meet from month to month, and from paycheck to paycheck. This vicious cycle of indebtedness kept piling up their debts as the interests on their loans continue to eat up on their meager earnings. In the end, they eventually lose everything they own or could own to these lenders.
Thus, the CFI was born. It started from a simple idea. What if they pool their idle funds into a common fund for others to borrow at lower interests and for those who invested earn as well. It was a win-win proposition for both the borrower and the investor. Borrowers were charged interests a lot less than those of the money lenders and investors earn a lot more than the interests from their bank deposits.
Its simplicity made it easy to understand and implement so that from a small band of 29 members and a capital of P200.00, the CFI has grown exponentially in 50 years to become a multi-billion cooperative with a membership base of 130,000 active and strong members.
Over the years, our cooperative welcomed members from other sectors while our Courts of First Instance changed their names to Regional Trial Courts (RTC).
Yet, the letters CFI remained with us. Instead of the long name appended to our cooperative, we just call it CFI.
Short of funds for our kid’s tuition? CFI are the 3 letters that first come to our minds to fund the shortfall. A family emergency that will upset the family budget? CFI are the first letters we could think to address it. Dream of running a business on your own? CFI are the letters that will give us the confidence and will to pursue it. Just received a lump-sum pension and thinking of investing it? The letters CFI gives us hope and comfort for a decent and regular income to sustain us in our retirement.
Indeed, to the multitude of our members, CFI has become their haven in times of financial need. It is the COOP we first turn to when facing the economic challenges in our daily lives. It is our COOP of the first choice to run for redress during difficult financial situations.
Coincidentally, true to what they earlier represented, CFI has become the COOP we invoke at the first instance of financial pressure.
No wonder, after fifty years, the letters CFI are still with us serving as beacons of hope, deliverance, and refuge.
So, what does CFI stand for? It simply is: Our COOP of First Instance (CFI).