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.
Coconut farmers should not expect to receive any cash from the proceeds of the controversial coco levy fund that the Supreme Court recently ruled belonged to the government which must use it for the benefit of the farmers by resuscitating the struggling coconut industry.
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.
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.
President Benigno Aquino III will decide based on “what is right for the people” the disposition of the coco levy funds.
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.
Welchor de Vera wanted so much to redeem a mortgage taken by his parents on the family’s coconut farm that he sold one of his kidneys to an Arab for P90,000.
President Benigno Aquino III had a eureka moment on his last visit to the United States in September last year.
Coconut farmer-leaders from across the country have called on President Benigno Aquino III to reclaim the multibillion-peso coconut levy funds invested in San Miguel Corp. (SMC), the food giant under the control of his uncle-tycoon, Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.
Coconut farmers have one wish this Christmas: For President Benigno Aquino III, his uncle Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco and the Supreme Court to play Santa Claus and return billions of pesos in coconut levy fund.
