Quezon farmers want coco levy accounted for

LUCENA CITY—Quezon farmers want to know if the P72-billion coconut levy is still intact in the government coffers.

With the loss of multibillion pesos of state funds to corruption in the government, Kilusan Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungan Panlipunan (Katarungan)-Quezon is now inclined to ask President Aquino, “Do you still have the coconut levy fund?” said spokesperson Jansept Geronimo on Tuesday.

“We’re now demanding that the fund, the cash money and all its assets, be subjected to a thorough accounting by neutral and independent examiners,” he said.

Geronimo said the farmers vowed to continue to wage protest activities demanding the return of the coconut levy after President Aquino ignored their calls in his State of the Nation Address (Sona).

“We are extremely disappointed with [President Aquino]. He did not even say a word about his plan with the coconut levy fund despite the present sorry situation of the coconut farmers across the country,” Geronimo said.

He said coconut farmers had long been waiting for the announcement on the use of the coconut levy fund in the past Sonas of Mr. Aquino but always ended up disenchanted.

Quezon farmers are believed the biggest contributors to the coco levy fund exacted from them from 1973 to 1982 during the martial law regime under dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Geronimo clarified that the farmers were not asking for the use of the whole fund but “just a small percentage of it or even the accumulated bank interest will be enough for the meantime.”

He said the use of the coconut levy fund was made more urgent as coconut scale infestation (CSI), or “cocolisap” pest, continues to ravage farms across the country after being battered by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” last year and the recent Typhoon “Glenda.”

The United Coconut Associations of the Philippines, in a report, said the extent of typhoon devastation, which was further aggravated by a delayed government response to CSI, wreaked havoc on the country’s coconut industry, which resulted to zero export of copra for at least four months early this year.

Quezon Gov. David Suarez also called on the President to use portions of the levy to start the total rehabilitation of the coconut industry through massive replanting of hybrid coconuts.

Lucena Bishop Emilio Marquez also said the time to use the coconut levy “is now” as it could be used to revive destroyed coconut farms and give livelihood assistance to poor farmers.

The recovered fund is expected to benefit more than 20 million coconut farmers and their families from more than 21,000 coconut-producing villages across the country.