Fear raised over coco levy use for polls

LUCENA CITY—With national elections drawing near, a group of peasants called on coconut farmers nationwide to close ranks and protect the multibillion-peso coconut levy fund from being used by the Aquino administration as campaign money.

“We have to protect the coconut farmer’s money on all fronts—legal battles, street protest and pressure politics,” said Jansepth Geronimo, spokesperson for the Kilusan Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungang Panlipunan (Katarungan) in an interview on Wednesday.

On May 30, the Confederation of Coconut Farmers Organizations of the Philippines (CCFOP) filed a petition at the Supreme Court to stop the implementation of two executive orders (EO) issued by President Aquino—EO 179 and EO 180—privatizing the P74.3-billion coco levy fund and allocating it for programs for coconut farmers.

Geronimo said the legal battle is only one of the options that coconut farmers could take to fight the implementation of the two EOs.

Geronimo’s group had estimated that the funds could benefit at least 20 million coconut farmers and their families nationwide.