Tillers hit coco producers’ ‘blackmail’

The Philippine Coconut Producers Federation Inc. (Cocofed) has reportedly sent feelers to the government for a compromise that would ensure it a 20-percent share in the contested coconut levy funds being held in escrow by a bank—recently estimated at about P120 billion—in exchange for withdrawing its legal objections to the fund’s release.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said Cocofed’s proposal “sounded like blackmail.”

The feelers, according to KMP, were revealed in a memorandum from the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to President Benigno Aquino III which reported that Cocofed, an organization of coconut producers formed during the time of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, asked for a share of the contested funds in exchange for withdrawing its legal objections that were hampering the lifting of the escrow. The funds are deposited at the United Coconut Planters Bank.

Cocofed has challenged before the Supreme Court the Sandiganbayan’s decision awarding the Coconut Industry Investment Fund-Oil Mills Group (CIIF-OMG) shares to the government.

The seven-page letter from PCA administrator Euclides Forbes was reportedly sent to President Aquino last month, after the Presidential Task Force on the coco levy met in early December.

The letter reported that Cocofed “has been negotiating in back-door talks some compromise proposal that it will not oppose the lifting of escrow on the earnings of said shares if the government gives them, for example, at least 20 percent  of said CIIF-OMG shares.”

Cocofed is said to be closely linked to San Miguel Corp. (SMC) chair Eduardo Cojuangco, a former crony of Marcos. Cojuangco used to serve on the board of Cocofed, along with the late Ma. Clara Lobregat, a former SMC corporate secretary who became a politician.

Consortium of oil mills

The CIIF-OMG is a consortium of oil mills that were acquired using the Coconut Industry Development Fund Levy, a tax imposed on the country’s coconut farmers.

About P1 billion was used for the purchase of the oil mills by the United Coconut Planters Bank. Reports said the cash dividends from the CIIF-OMG shares should reach over P3 billion.

Former Sen. Wigberto Tañada, who was appointed by President Aquino as chair of some of the CIIF-OMG companies and a known critic of Cojuangco, confirmed that Cocofed had been asking coconut farmer groups to give them part of the funds since the Sandiganbayan awarded the CIIF block to the government in 2004.

The PCA memorandum, he said, appeared to be the first time that the group’s move was confirmed by the government.

“Dati usap-usapan lang ‘yan (these used to be just rumors),” he said.

In his letter to the President, Forbes did note that other stakeholders had opposed Cocofed’s proposal.

Received millions of pesos

Tañada said the farmers refused to grant Cocofed’s request. “We have already won in the Sandiganbayan…Cocofed has been a recipient of millions of pesos,” he said.

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas said Cocofed’s proposal sounded like “blackmail.”

“Any compromise deal with Cojuangco on the coco levy funds is totally unacceptable to small coconut farmers,” said KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos.

“The reported attempt by pseudo-coconut farmers’ groups to hatch a highly immoral deal in exchange for an insulting 20-percent share would legitimize the systematic plunder of the coconut levy funds by President Aquino’s uncle and undermine the legitimate claim of small coconut farmers over the funds,” Ramos said.

Cojuangco is a cousin of the late President Corazon Aquino, the current President’s mother.

Last month, coconut farmers appealed to the Supreme Court to affirm the Sandiganbayan’s decision on their shares.  The Philippines is currently among the world’s top exporters of coconut oil and other coconut-based products.