Sen. Grace Poe. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The administration’s “Daang Matuwid” coalition twitted Senator Grace Poe for claiming to champion the cause of small coconut farmers, saying that she failed to act on a pending bill creating the coco levy trust fund.
“As Vice-Chair of the Agricultural Committee, perhaps Senator Poe can explain why the bill remains unpassed at (and) why she did not even become a co-author. It’s easy to say you are an ally of a particular sector. The hard thing is doing real work to genuinely help them,” coalition spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said on Friday.
The statement came after Poe’s running mate Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero blamed some key members of the ruling Liberal Party for the non-passage of the bill.
READ: Escudero hits Pangilinan, LP: Politics defers coco levy bill passage
The coco levy trust fund bill created to manage the fund, which is valued at least P70 billion, for local coconut farmers remains pending in the Senate.
Unlike Poe and Escudero, the Akbayan Representative said he and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, who is running for vice president with LP standard-bearer Mar Roxas, played major roles in passing the bill in the lower house.
“Our commitment is seen with the passing of the coco levy trust fund bill in the House after it was certified urgent by the President. Cong. Leni and I spearheaded its passing in the lower house,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said it is one of the administration party’s priorities to make sure farmers benefit from the money recovered from Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. and other cronies of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Cojuangco is the founder of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) which threw support to the Poe-Escudero tandem in their presidential and vice presidential bids, respectively.
READ: Poe, Escudero finally get NPC’s endorsement
Both Poe and Escudero are being criticized for defending Cojuangco on the issue and putting the blame on the government for the delay in the release of the funds. RAM
READ: Poe-Escudero hit for clearing Danding