Farmers worry over pork exec’s role in levy bills
LUCENA CITY—A leader of the coconut levy claimants’ movement “Coco Levy Fund Ibalik sa Amin” (Claim) has expressed alarm over the participation of an agriculture official linked to the pork barrel scam in the technical working group (TWG) of a Senate committee that is studying several bills on the coco levy issue.
Nestor Villanueva, Claim national chair, in a statement on Monday, criticized the inclusion of Assistant Agriculture Secretary Ophelia Agawin in the TWG of the Senate committee on agriculture.
Villanueva said coconut farmers were dismayed over Agawin’s inclusion in the Senate agriculture panel’s TWG on coco levy fund bills as Agawin has links with pork barrel scam accused Janet Lim-Napoles.
Agawin has been identified by pork barrel scam whistle-blowers during Senate investigations as a conduit of fake nongovernment organizations controlled by Napoles.
In October 2013, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas charged Agawin at the Ombudsman with plunder along with President Aquino, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Napoles and other agriculture officials.
Villanueva said Agawin is also among the officials charged in connection with the fertilizer fund scam involving then Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante in 2003.
Quezon coconut farmers blamed the administration of President Benigno Aquino III for the continued fall in the country’s coconut-based exports.
“If President Aquino will remain deaf to the cries of coconut farmers for the return of the coco levy, the industry will continue to suffer,” said Jansepth Geronimo, spokesperson of Kilusan para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungang Panlipunan (Katarungan)-Quezon.
The United Coconut Association of the Philippines (Ucap) said the volume of the country’s coconut-based exports fell by 25 percent in 2014 to 1.4 million tons.
Based on initial figures from Ucap, the volume was just about three-fourths of the 1.95 million tons shipped out in 2013.
Ucap also noted that last year’s shipment of coconut oil, a top export, had also dropped by about 28 percent to 793,881 tons, while that of copra meal fell by 32 percent to 510,043 tons.
Geronimo said the slump in exports of coconut products is the result of Aquino’s inaction on the demand of farmers for the coco levy fund to be used for their and the coconut industry’s benefit.
Geronimo said the return of the fund to farmers, through an executive order, is key to reviving the dying coconut industry.
The controversial levy fund is now estimated at P72 billion.
Quezon farmers are believed to be the biggest contributors to the coco levy fund exacted from them from 1973 to 1982, during the Marcos dictatorship.
