Palace: SC TRO on coco levy use to ‘prolong farmers agony’

Malacañang has said it will respect the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) on two executive orders related to how the coco levy will be used and in whose possession it will be placed, but views this as prolonging the farmers’ agony.

Francis Pangilinan, presidential assistant for food security and agricultural modernization, said on Wednesday such “unending legal disputes … are part of the problem.”

“We cannot be suing each other forever because by doing so, the reforms we seek will be further delayed,” said Pangilinan, whose office has been supervising the Philippine Coconut Authority.

“We need to move forward and getting the fund out of the way of legal disputes is a necessary first step,” Pangilinan said.

Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court announced that it has issued a TRO — effective immediately and until further orders — against the implementation of EO No. 179 and No. 180.

EO 179 requires the inventory and privatization of all coconut levy assets — pegged to be at P74.3 billion — as well as their reconveyance in favor of the government.

EO 180 also mandates the immediate transfer of these assets to the government, and further designates its use spelled out in the Integrated Coconut Industry Roadmap and the Roadmap for the Coco Levy.

Pangilinan earlier described the roadmaps as being geared towards the empowerment of the coconut farmers, coconut farmers’ organizations and community enterprises through value-adding and diversification of coconut products such as coco coir, virgin coconut oil, coco milk, coco peat and coco water.

In issuing the TRO, the high court was acting on a petition filed last May 20 by the Confederation of Coconut Farmers Organizations of the Philippines (CCFOP), which argued that the two EOs were unconstitutional and that it bypassed the lawmaking authority of Congress.

“It is most unfortunate that some parties have stubbornly continued to oppose the use of the funds to the detriment of the beneficiaries, the aging coconut farmers,” Pangilinan said.

“Opposing the use of the funds has been the mantra for the last 40 years and a number of critics have failed to reinvent themselves, refused to take risks and look for out-of-the box solutions to address the plight of (the) farmers,” he added.

The former senator said the solution was the judicious use of the funds rather than the knee-jerk opposition to its use and the filing of cases to prevent its use.

He said the two EOs were meant to ensure that the coco levy funds were used judiciously.