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Aquino: Levy is for farmers

President to issue EO, certify bill on coco funds urgent

Christian V. Esguerra

1:09 AM | Thursday, November 27th, 2014

PRESIDENTIAL ASSURANCE President Aquino meets on Wednesdaywith coconut farmers who marched from Davao City starting on Sept. 21,the 42nd anniversary of martial law, to Malacaang. He assured them thatthe government is on their side and supports their efforts to recover cocolevy funds. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Their long walk to Malacaang did not exactly go to waste.

Assuring coconut farmers that the government was on your side, PresidentBenigno Aquino III on Wednesday threw his support behind a bill outlininghow they would directly benefit from P71 billion in taxes collected from themduring the Marcos regime.

The President also gave the group Kilus Magniniyog his word that he wouldlook into its proposal for an executive order putting up a Coconut FarmersTrust Fund.

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I hope its clear: You have our full support and we are on your side, he toldcoconut farmers in Filipino in a meeting in Malacaang. May you continueto trust [the government]. Help us in the struggle to achieve our singularobjective for coconut farmers and the rest of the Philippines.

The farmers wore green shirts with the words, Nakaw na Coco Levy, Ibaliksa Niyugan. For the meeting, the President assembled a powerhouse groupof his Cabinet men: Presidential Assistant on Food Security and AgriculturalModernization Francis Pangilinan, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, JusticeSecretary Leila de Lima, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje, ExecutiveSecretary Paquito Ochoa, and Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras.

Covering around 1,700 kilometers in 66 days, 71 coconut farmers callingthemselves KM71 marched from Davao City to Malacaang beginning

Sept. 21, the 42nd anniversary of martial law, to dramatize their plight.

More important, small coconut farmers want to take control of and actuallybenefit from P71 billion in coco levy funds the government recovered fromcronies of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

The best course of action I see is to craft a law. This would ensure that thenext generation would enjoy the benefits brought by the coco levy fund andwe would be spared from any legal obstacle in the future, Mr. Aquino toldthe farmers.

He said coconut farmers would be consulted primarily about the provisionsthat will be contained in the bill, which he promised to certify as urgent soit could be passed into law at the soonest time.

Law, executive order

But pending such a law, the President was open to issuing an executiveorder ensuring that the coconut industry, especially small farmers, wouldenjoy the benefits of the coco levy fund.

Mr. Aquino agreed that the fund should be separate from the annual budgetof the Philippine Coconut Authority.

Ialso agree that we will use only interest income from the coco levy fund sothat even the next generation of farmers would benefit from it, he said.

Saying his administration did not neglect coconut farmers, he said thegovernment had increased the PCAs budget from P593 million in 2010 toP5.1 billion last year.

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Because of this budget, we were able to focus on programs that made yourfarm lands more productive, he said.

At the outset, the President reminded the group that the Supreme Court hadyet to decide on the motion for partial reconsideration of its 2012 ruling thatthe government owned the 27-percent block of shares of San Miguel Corp.,the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF).

Only for farmers

The percentage was later reduced to 24 percent as a result of a Japanesebrewers investment in SMC.

Another Supreme Court decision in December 2012 also ruled that shares

transferred to businessman Eduardo Danding Cojuangco at UnitedCoconut Planters Bank belonged to the government.

They were to beused only for the benefit of all coconut farmers and for thedevelopment of the coconut industry, and ordered reconveyed to thegovernment, the high court said.