Matured coconuts are collected, dehusked and dried into copra to be sold as raw material for coconut oil. Photo by LA Villariba
Senate Pro Tempore Ralph Recto. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Due to conflicting estimates on the value of the “coco levy fund,” Senator Ralph Recto on Monday called for an audit of the multibillion-peso fund, which grew out of the levy on copra sales during the Marcos regime.
“There are lots of numbers being bandied about. One estimate, reportedly from the Asset Privatization Trust, puts it at P100 billion. One briefer presented by a financial institution computes it at P73 billion. Government lawyers place it at P60 billion. A Cabinet member says it’s P72 billion,” Recto said in a statement Monday.
“Just today, we were told by the Presidential Commission on Good Government that the fund is in the neighborhood of P80 billion,” he said, referring to the hearing of the Senate committee on agriculture joint with finance on the Coconut Farmers and Industry Fund.
Recto said only an audit by the Commission on Audit (COA) “can settle the confusion and present us with a clear picture on value, status, interests, income and assets of the fund.”
The COA, he said, has both the expertise and the mandate “to follow the money and catalogue the assets.”
“Because the levies were used to acquire a myriad of corporations and finance ventures, we need an audit to show where these are and the state of investments,” said the senator.
Among the investments are seven oil mills, as well as seven other firms engaged in a wide range of activities – from banking to insurance to chemicals – and 10 copra trading companies. The investments were made prior to 1982 by the Coconut Industry Investment Fund, which in turn was financed in whole by coco levy collections.
One of the investments, the 753.8 million shares in San Miguel Corporation worth P56 billion at the time of buy-back, has been declared by the Supreme Court as public funds. The high court’s partial entry of judgment last week paved the way for its eventual plowback to farmers.
“But for government to properly administer the fund and distribute the dividends, it must have an idea of how much money is involved,” Recto said.
“Hindi naman siguro complicated ang accounting. Eh kung nabilang nga natin ang lahat ng puno ng niyog sa buong bansa na 338,339,638, siguro naman mas madali bilangin ang fruits ng coco levy funds,” he further said.
Senator Cynthia Villar, meanwhile, welcomed the SC decision paving the way for the release of coconut levy funds amounting to P60 billion for the benefit of the 3.5 million coconut farmers in the country.
Sen. Cynthia Villar. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
“This partial release of the P100-billion fund is a step in the right direction. We congratulate the coconut farmers for this victory. With this amount, a trust fund can be created to bankroll programs that will directly benefit coconut farmers,” Villar, chair of the committee on agriculture, said in a separate statement.
“The coconut farmers who earn only P50 a day are the poorest in our country. The levy funds rightfully belongs to the farmers and should be used to improve their condition,” she further said.
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