There’s still time to pass bills on 4Ps, coco levy—Recto

Sen. Ralph Recto. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Congress may still enact into law the proposed Programang Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino (4Ps) Institutionalization Bill and the Coco Levy Bill before it adjourns in June, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said on Friday.

Both houses of Congress will reconvene on May 23 for a three-week session that will end on June 10, or 20 days before the new president is sworn into office.

“Call it midnight laws or whatever. The fact remains that we, in Congress, can work overtime if need be, just to ensure the passage of the bills on 4Ps and Coco Levy,” Recto said in a statement.

And to expedite the passage of the twin measures, the senator proposed that legislative members who are gunning for the top two positions in government should be united behind its passage.

“Lahat sila, pareho naman ang sinasabi sa sorties, debates and interview… na dapat isabatas ang pagsasauli ng coconut levy at gawing permanente ang Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, o yung Programang Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino (4Ps) (All of them are saying the same thing in their sorties, debates and interviews, that the release of coconut levy and the need for the permanence of the Conditional Cash Transfer [CCT] program, or Programang Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino [4Ps] should be enacted into laws). They’re reading from the same page,” Recto said.

“There is still time to pass the two bills before the curtains fall on this Congress. And all the actors in the presidential and VP race are either members of the Senate or the House, or have kin in the Senate, or have a senator as running mate,” he said.

He noted that presidential candidates Grace Poe and Miriam Defensor Santiago are both incumbent senators while Vice President Jojo Binay’s daughter, Nancy, is a sitting senator like Alan Peter Cayetano, running mate of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte.

Aside from Cayetano, Recto said, four other vice presidential candidates are incumbent senators and they are Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan II, Binay’s running mate; Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who teamed up with Poe; Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., running mate of Santiago; and independent candidate Antonio Trillanes IV, who is supporting Poe.

The sole member of the House of Representatives in the vice presidential race is Camarines Sur Representative Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo, running mate of administration bet, former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.

“Si Leni representative ni Mar. Si Binay dalawa kinatawan, si Gringo at si Nancy (Leni is Mar’s representative. Binay has two representatives— Gringo and Nancy), while Digong can be ably represented by Alan Peter, who is our Majority Floor Leader,” Recto said.

“Kung sino man manalo sa kanila, pag-upo pa lang, may batas na (Whoever among them wins, as soon as he or she is seated, there would be a law at hand),” he pointed out.

Recto insisted that while work in the three weeks includes canvassing the returns and proclaiming the presidential and vice presidential winners, there is still time to win approval for the measures.

“Pagkatapos ng eleksyon sa Mayo, balik trabaho sa Senado at House. Kaya ang pwede pagpuyatan ay ang CCT at coco levy bills (After the May elections, Senate and House of Representatives will go back to work. So CCT and coco levy bills could still be worked on). We have three weeks to do it and in lawmaking, that’s enough time to finalize a bill,” he said.

The senator said the two bills institutionalizing the CCT “are on the final stretch of committee deliberation.”

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Juliano Soliman has also requested Malacañang to back the measure, a move that the senator said would speed up its approval.

Recto said the bills would provide a “lasting legal framework” to CCT’s operation and protect it from “any shift in political winds.”

As for the coco levy measure, Recto explained that the consolidated bill that he and Sen. Cynthia Villar authored was about to be approved on second reading when Malacañang suddenly issued twin orders governing its use in March last year.

“Parang ang nangyari (It seemed that), Malacañang pulled the rug underneath it. It jumped the gun on the legislature as a whole,” he said.

Executive Order (EO) 179 provided for the inventory, privatization and transfer of coco levy assets in favor of government while Executive Order 180 mandated the transfer of the funds to government for an “Integrated Coconut Industry Roadmap Program.”

However, the Supreme Court (SC), acting on a farmers’ group plea, issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in May last year, stopping the implementation of the two EOs.

READ: SC stops 2 Aquino EOs on managing coco levy funds

“Thirty years have passed and the farmers are still waiting for the money, the fund is still frozen, and the implementation of the executive orders mandating its use has been stopped by the courts,” the senator lamented.

Birthed by Republic Act 6260, and expanded by four Marcos decrees, the coco levy was imposed on copra sales purportedly to raise capital investment for the coconut industry.

By 1986, Recto said, the total amount collected from the various coconut levies from 1971 to 1982 amounted to P9.7 billion. In the aftermath of EDSA I, the amount was sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), which also triggered a long legal struggle for its ownership.

READ: SC orders PCGG to comment on UCPB, Cocolife appeal on coco levy funds

On May 7, 2004, the Sandiganbayan rendered a partial summary judgment declaring that the six Coconut Industry Investment Fund—Oil Mills Group (CIIF-OMG) companies, their 14 holding firms, and the CIIF-OMG block of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) shares as “owned by the Government in trust for all the coconut farmers.”

The SC, in its decision dated Jan. 24 2012, upheld the Sandiganbayan ruling. In the same year, the SMC shares amounting to P57.6 billion were paid for by San Miguel.

The total amount of coco levy fund released for public dispensation was estimated to be worth P71 billion including interest when the SC issued the ruling.

Following the SC order, several bills were filed in the House and the Senate on how to judiciously and transparently dispose the levy for the benefit of the coconut farmers. RAM