Palace to coco farmers: Be patient
By TJ Burgonio
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.
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.
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.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Thursday acknowledged that the House version of the sin tax bill might be construed as favorable to liquor firms, but reminded critics that the measure was still up for scrutiny by the Senate.
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.
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.
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.
Sen. Joker Arroyo compares the travails of the coconut farmers on the cusp of recovering some P100 billion in martial law-decreed tax to that of “The Little Red Hen.”
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.
