Big landowners on the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon province are fencing their properties to stop agrarian reform beneficiaries from taking possession of the land that had been awarded to them, a leader of a nongovernment organization in Lucena City said Friday.
Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala slammed the proposed distribution of the nearly P70-billion coconut levy fund to individual farmers, saying it would only generate floods of court cases against the government.
Disappointed with President Benigno Aquino III’s continued silence on coco levy issue despite the recent Supreme Court final ruling that the multi-billion pesos 24-percent block of sequestered shares in San Miguel Corp. (SMC) belong to the government for its use to benefit the coconut farmers, a peasant group warned that the administration candidates will be rejected in next year’s election.
