SC paves way for coco funds release
MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court has officially issued a partial entry of judgment on one of the coco levy cases involving shares in the San Miguel Corp. (SMC), paving the way for the freeing of at least P60-billion worth of funds to benefit the country’s coconut farmers.
Following an en banc session on Tuesday, the high court ordered the release of the partial entry of judgment on 753,848,312 SMC shares, a 31-percent Series 1 block that was purchased using money from the tax levied on coconut farmers by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
It came nearly a month after the high court granted on Dec. 10, 2014, the government’s petition for the Supreme Court to release the document, saying it hoped to “conclude litigation over the funds and allow its proceeds to benefit the coconut farmers and their industry.”
Solicitor General Florin Hilbay said the high court’s action would provide the capital for the government to implement a long-term policy for the coconut industry.
Long-term policy
“With a P60-billion to P70-billion capital, the President, through an executive order, can now execute a long-term policy for coco farmers and their industry,” said Hilbay in a statement.
The government last October had asked the high court to issue an entry of judgment for its decision on the coco levy case involving the SMC shares.
In the document it released on Wednesday, the high court said its Sept. 4, 2012, resolution, where it ruled that the government owned the SMC shares, had “become final and executory” by virtue of its Dec. 10 ruling.
In the latter ruling, the high court had ordered the immediate issuance of a partial entry of judgment, which would enforce the recording of the 2012 ruling in the book of entries of judgment and cause its execution.
The clerk of court is tasked to enter a judgment or a final order in the book of entries of judgments if no appeal or motion for new trial or consideration is filed within 15 days, according to the Rules on Civil Procedure.
The entry of judgment is the final order entered by the court in a case. It was only partial in this case as government is still contesting ownership of a block of treasury shares that had been “inadvertently excluded.”
In his motion for partial entry of judgment, Hilbay argued that there was “no longer any dispute” over the government’s ownership of the 753,848,312 SMC Series 1 preferred shares, so that this was “severable” from the still pending issue.
Public funds
The high court’s January 2012 ruling upheld—but modified—a decision by the Sandiganbayan antigraft court that declared that the 31-percent block of SMC shares had been bought with coco levy money, and may thus be considered as public funds.
However, it further ruled that the funds should be used solely for the benefit of coconut farmers and the coconut industry. The ruling became final in September 2012.
The coconut levy fund came from a forced levy imposed on coconut farmers by Marcos throughout the martial law years. The dictator assigned one of his cronies, businessman Eduardo Cojuangco, to administer the fund.
Used by crony
The government, in various court cases, has contended that the collections from the levy were used by Cojuangco and his associates to acquire various assets, including the United Coconut Planters Bank and, most importantly, a majority stake in the SMC food and beverage giant, which is now a diversified conglomerate.
The funds from the coco levy were sequestered after Marcos was ousted in the first People Power Revolution of 1986.
The January 2012 Supreme Court ruling ordered that the 753,848,312 SMC shares be used by government to help the 3.5 million impoverished coconut farmers and their families.–Tarra Quismundo
