A militant peasant group on Saturday slammed the passage of a bill at the House of Representatives creating a coco levy trust fund, calling it a “copycat” of two executive orders (EOs) by President Benigno Aquino III, which were the subject of a temporary restraining order by the Supreme Court in June.
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said House Bill 6135 blatantly supports the privatization of coco levy fund and assets.
“The coco levy fund bill passed by the House is identical with Aquino’s EO 179 and 180. Like Aquino’s anti-farmer EOs, the coco levy fund privatization bill further diminish and deny the small coco farmers’ legitimate claim over the funds,” KMP chairperson Rafael Mariano said in a statement.
House Bill 6135 or the coconut levy trust fund bill was among the key bills passed by the Congress’ lower chamber on the third and final reading in its closing session on Friday. The bill was certified as urgent by Malacañang this week after the House Committtee on Appropriations passed it at the committee level.
In June, the Supreme Court stopped Malacañang from implementing EO 179 and EO 180 over the privatization and reconveyance of the P74.3-billion coconut levy fund, which the high court had previously declared as public funds.
READ: SC stops 2 Aquino EOs on managing coco levy funds
Nestor Villanueva, spokesperson of the Coco Levy Fund Ibalik sa Amin movement, accused both the Malacañang and the House of “manuevering” in order to pass the bill, calling the latter as a “rubber stamp” of the former.
“It is highly ironic that despite the Supreme Court decision declaring the coco levy funds as public funds, Malacañang and its [rubber stamp] Congress are hell-bent in maneuvering to privatize the funds and assets from the coco levy that was extracted from coco farmers by the Marcos dictatorship,” Villanueva said.
Mariano urged small coconut farmers to “resist Aquino’s blatant rejection of their demand to give [the] coco levy fund to its rightful owners.”
“Aquino and his coco levy mafia’s persistent push to privatize the coco levy funds further expose their scheme to once again plunder the funds,” Mariano said. CDG
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