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President Bongbong Marcos on Thursday ordered the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) “to improve” the condition of coconut farmers, the sector demanding a just share from the controversial multibillion-peso coco levy fund. He did not specify ways in his speech during the 50th anniversary of the PCA, but the President said he wanted the Philippines to be the biggest exporter of coconut products.
Mr. Marcos said the government has already started to formulate plans on how to redevelop the country’s coconut industry to help coconut farmers.
“There is no reason why the Philippines should not be the biggest producer of export in terms of coconut products,” he said, adding that “the potential is really quite good.”
He ordered the PCA to invest in new technologies and initiatives to guarantee the resilience of the coconut industry.
Expand distribution
He said the Philippines needed to continue developing and improving coconut byproducts “so that we can find new uses and expand its distribution to new markets.”
According to him, the PCA must intensify the implementation of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan (CFIDP) “to accelerate the modernization of the coconut industry and to improve the lives of our coconut farmers and their families.”
“I thus encourage the PCA to continue to uplift [the] lives of our coconut farmers and empower them to improve their conditions, break free from the chains of poverty, and dream bigger for themselves and for their loved ones,” he said.
On June 2 last year, former President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order No. 172, or the CFIDP to serve as the basis for using the P75-billion coco levy fund through various programs and projects.
From 1971 to 1982, the government under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos collected money from coconut farmers by imposing levies, taxes, charges and other fees for selling copra.
After the Marcoses left Malacañang in 1986, lawsuits filed by coconut farmers alleged that cronies of the Marcos administration diverted the funds to finance their own business interests.
READ: Coco levy beneficiaries continue to face hurdles