Farmers vow bigger coco levy protests

LUCENA CITY—Leftist groups struggling to retrieve billions of pesos of levy collected from coconut farmers vowed to launch bigger protest actions to press the Aquino administration to act in favor of the farmers against President Aquino’s uncle, businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, tagged as the biggest beneficiary of the coconut levy.

The protest actions would be more “creative and daring,” according to Joann Fernandez, Katarungan spokesperson, in a recent interview.

Katarungan, a coalition of peasant groups and reform advocates in the coconut industry, launched a 160-km protest march from this city to Manila in November to press for the return of the funds to farmers.

Jansept Geronimo, secretary of the Coalition of Coconut Farmers of Quezon, said more farmers would take part in the next protest actions.

Geronimo and Fernandez said they saw an increase in public support for the farmers during the November protests.

“With growing support from his ‘bosses,’ we now hope that President Aquino will finally listen to the cries of the suffering coconut farmers,” said Geronimo.

Mr. Aquino has yet to declare his stand on the controversial levy fund.