Tillers decry Palace hold on coco levy
Militant farmer groups on Sunday assailed the “extraordinary power” Malacañang had over the multibillion-peso coconut levy fund.
Militant farmer groups on Sunday assailed the “extraordinary power” Malacañang had over the multibillion-peso coconut levy fund.
Coconut farmers may have to wait a little longer for President Aquino to come up with a clear-cut policy on the disposition of the P70-billion recovered coco levy fund assets.
Lawmakers have got it all wrong. National farmers’ groups on Monday rejected a proposal by Rep. Emil Ong that President Aquino use the P70-billion coconut levy fund to subsidize what the Northern Samar congressman said was a sharp drop in the price of copra that could potentially trigger social unrest.
After an epic 26-year struggle, coconut farmers may be back to square one, unless President Benigno Aquino listens to calls that he intervene in the management of P70 billion in recovered state assets acquired with the use of taxes imposed on them during the martial law years.
Lawmakers are urging President Benigno Aquino to dip into the P70-billion coco levy fund to protect the 3.5 million coconut farmers from a collapse in copra prices and stave off a brewing social upheaval.
More than 200 small coconut farmers and leaders of various peasant organizations from Southern Tagalog and Bicol region who were attending the “coco levy funds claimants summit” in the town of Pagbilao, Quezon, on Tuesday demanded a cash distribution of the multibillion-peso coconut levy funds being held by the government.
Peasant groups are divided on what to do with the recovered coconut levy fund.
The return of P56.5 billion coconut levy fund to the government from the redemption of the 24 percent San Miguel Corp shares was only a partial victory for the country’s coconut peasants, a lawyer for several coconut farmers group said Monday.
Coconut farmers on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court decision affirming with finality the 2004 Sandiganbayan ruling that awarded to the government the 24-percent block of sequestered shares in San Miguel Corp. (SMC) acquired with the funds from the coconut levy imposed during the martial law years.
Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said he was squarely on the side of the coconut farmers should a “window” reopen in the controversial “coco levy” case at the Supreme Court under new Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.
Senator Joker Arroyo on Wednesday called for the immediate cash distribution to coconut farmers of assets now estimated at more than P100 billion acquired using a coconut levy collected from them during the martial law years.
Impoverished coconut farmers cannot wait forever for the Supreme Court to ease their plight.
Militant groups on Monday urged President Benigno Aquino III to certify as urgent a bill that would establish a trust fund for coconut farmers, fearing the disputed shares of stock of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) worth some P85 billion acquired with the use of a coconut levy would be used to finance the distribution of his family’s Hacienda Luisita.
