The militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the claimants movement Coco Levy Fund Ibalik sa Amin (CLAIM) on Sunday declared support for a move to have Congress investigate the importation and selling of palm-based cooking oil by a sequestered oil mill.
Hundreds of protesting farmers stormed the offices of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) in Quezon City Thursday, clashing with riot policemen who tried to stop them with fire extinguishers.
The militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the claimants’ movement Coco Levy Funds Ibalik sa Amin (CLAIM) have expressed dismay over reports that the Department of Agrarian Reform is eyeing the coco levy fund for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp).
The government’s receipt of P56.5 billion from San Miguel Corp. representing proceeds from the sale of its 24-percent stake in the country’s biggest food conglomerate bought with coconut levy funds is only a partial victory for the country’s coconut farmers as the amount is only part of the list of civil cases on the disposal of the fund, a lawyer for coconut farmers’ groups said Monday.
There’s a sense of déjà vu in the Aquino administration’s plans for some P100 billion in recovered assets illegally acquired with funds from the coconut levy imposed during the martial law years.
An alliance of coconut farmers’ organizations in Quezon on Sunday appealed to President Benigno Aquino to set up immediately a mechanism to manage the P56.5-billion coconut levy fund from the proceeds of the bulk of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) shares.
The Supreme Court has voided two executive orders of deposed President Joseph “Erap” Estrada that sought to privatize the 27 percent share in San Miguel Corp. (SMC) stock that had been bought with coconut levy funds, ostensibly to help coconut farmers and the country’s agriculture sector.
To break the legal impasse that has been preventing the poor coconut farmers from benefiting from the billions of pesos of coconut levy funds, a peasant group leader on Monday urged President Aquino to immediately push for passage of the proposed Coconut Levy Funds Administration and Management Act (HB 3443) now pending in Congress.
The Aquino administration has ruled out urgent use of frozen funds arising from sequestered shares of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) worth at least P85 billion to rehabilitate the troubled coconut industry pending a final decision of the Supreme Court on the issue.
Farmers are threatening to mount protests unless President Benigno Aquino III breaks his silence on the contentious coconut levy fund after the Supreme Court ruling a year ago, which said a P60-billion block of shares in San Miguel Corp. (SMC) belonged to his uncle, Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, became final.
Even United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corp. (Cocolife) appear to be keen on “cashing in” on the 24-percent block of shares in San Miguel Corp. (SMC) that is awaiting final resolution in the Supreme Court.
Coconut farmers can kiss goodbye their hopes of recovering nearly P60 billion worth of shares in San Miguel Corp. (SMC).
For three decades, Oscar F. Santos waited, and waited, and waited for the return of billions in coconut levy funds to millions of farmers on whose backs a few have amassed great wealth in the biggest scam to ever confront the nation.
