Aquino urged to use coco levy fund to fight coconut pest

COCONUT trees leaves gradually turn brown due to insect infestation. EDWIN BACASMAS

LUCENA CITY, Philippines — Bishop Emilio Marquez of Lucena appealed to President Benigno Aquino on Wednesday to use a portion of the multi-billion-peso coconut levy fund in the battle against the coconut scale insect that is ravishing many coconut farms and has affected nearly half a million coconut trees in Quezon.

“The time to use the coconut levy fund is now,” Marquez said in a telephone interview.

He said there was an urgent need to use even a small portion of the fund to help ease the plight of coconut growers.

Marquez said the insects were adding to the misery to the already poor farmers. He said the affected coconut trees have to be healed to make them productive again.

“But for the meantime, our poor coconut farmers and their families have to survive. They need all forms of assistance from the government and the levy fund could provide that,” he said.

During a consultation assembly here on Tuesday, Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization Francis Pangilinan said no portion of the coconut levy fund would be used in the war against the coconut pests.

He said there was no need yet to use the coco levy fund because the Philippine Coconut Authority had enough funds to deal with the pest.

Pangilinan said he wanted to use the recovered fund, estimated at P71 billion, for clear programs that would give direct benefits to the farmers.

Quezon farmers are believed to be the biggest payers of the coconut levy exacted from 1973 to 1982 during the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos.

Marquez said he was happy that politicians of various colors in the province have linked arms in the war against the coconut pest.

The consultation was organized by Quezon Gov. David Suarez and the PCA. But the Alcala clan, a political rival of the Suarez clan, attended the event. Rep. Vicente Alcala, who headed the Alcala delegation, was with  nephews Lucena Mayor Roderick Alcala and former Rep. Irvin Alcala, son of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, who opposed but lost against Suarez in the last election.

As of June 10, at least 435,710 coconut trees in 29 municipalities, most of them in the central part of the province and under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Lucena diocese, were infected with the  so-called “cocolisap” pest, according to the latest report from the provincial agriculturist office.

Roberto Gajo, Quezon chief agriculturist, said the pest has already affected 2,078 coconut farmers.

Former Quezon Board Member Claro Talaga, a known coconut protection advocate, maintained that if the government would use a portion of the coco levy fund in the battle against the pest, “coconut farmers across the country, most of them old, sick and dying, can begin to feel the benefits of the fund, which came from their blood, sweat and tears.”

Jansept Geronimo, spokesperson of Kilusan Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungan Panlipunan (Katarungan)-Quezon, said in a telephone interview, he believed the coconut levy fund should now be used as the insects have been wreaking havoc on coconut farms across the country.

On Monday, the national government unveiled a six-month emergency measure to address the pest and allotted P750 million to contain the insects, which have infested up to 1.2 million trees nationwide.

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