Farmers urge Duterte to certify coco levy bill

LUCENA CITY—A national peasant group on Monday brushed aside Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol’s claim that the administration’s hands were tied and urged President Duterte to certify for urgent approval of Congress a bill that would free a P73-billion coco levy fund for use of impoverished coconut farmers.

“The farmers are not barking up the wrong tree. They are right in calling the attention of President Duterte on his campaign promise to return the coco levy fund to them once elected,” Jansept Geronimo, spokesperson of Kilusan Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungan Panlipunan (Katarungan), told the Inquirer in a telephone interview.

Farmers from Quezon province—the country’s largest coconut-producing region—are joining a protest camp outside the offices of the Department of Agrarian Reform and Department of Environment and Natural Resources until Oct. 28.

Geronimo said Mr. Duterte had promised in Catanauan town in March during the election campaign that the funds would be distributed to coconut farmers within 100 days of his presidency. There was already a pending Supreme Court temporary restraining order (TRO) at that time on the implementation of two executive orders issued by then President Benigno Aquino III.

Executive Order No. 179 governs the disposition and privatization of recovered coco levy-funded assets while EO No. 180 provides the guidelines for the use of the recovered P74.3 billion from San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

The amount constitutes 24 percent of SMC shares, allegedly acquired illegally using the martial law tax levied on copra, that had been sequestered purportedly for being a part of the ill-gotten wealth of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.

But the Coconut Farmers’ Organizations of the Philippines challenged the legality of Aquino’s executive orders in the Supreme Court.

The organization, a recent incarnation of the Philippine Coconut Producers’ Federation, or Cocofed, wanted the fund for its 1 million members. Cocofed has been accused of misusing the levy fund.

After hemming and hawing, the Aquino administration went to Congress to certify the urgent approval of measures that basically embody the two executive orders.

Certify the bills

On June 30, 2015, the high court issued a TRO against EO Nos. 179 and 180.

“It is not true that there is no legal way to use the funds pending the decision on the TRO. What was needed is an implementing law for the release of the fund. That’s what the protesting farmers were expecting from Mr. Duterte—to tap his supermajority allies in Congress and Senate to pass the law,” Geronimo said.

Several coconut levy-related bills are pending in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The bills essentially seek the creation of a trust fund that will use interest on the principal for the benefit of the 3.5 million coconut farmers and the development of the industry, as mandated by the Supreme Court.

The farmers and their families comprise a quarter of the nation’s population. They are also the poorest in the agricultural sector.

Senate deadlock

The principal was envisioned to be invested in revenue-generating enterprises, and this was where deadlock in the Senate had ensued since the court ruled with finality on the disposition of 24 percent of SMC shares in January 2012.

The House of Representatives in the previous Congress had approved this measure, but the Senate failed to pass its version until adjournment, requiring the bills to be reintroduced, yet again.

“Certify that bill as urgent, rally your allies to pass it, and you will do something meaningful and real for our farmers,” Geronimo said, addressing Mr. Duterte.

Geronimo said that the President gave his word to the farmers, he should deliver on his promise. “The farmers are waiting,” he said.

To Piñol, Geronimo said: “Don’t say your hands are tied. Don’t accuse the farmers of barking up the wrong tree when they were merely calling out your President on a campaign promise he made.”

Misinformed

Piñol on Monday said the  Duterte administration could not just distribute the coco levy fund because  of a prohibition from the Supreme Court.

He said the protesting farmers from southern Luzon were “barking up the wrong tree” and were “either misinformed or misled.”

The Duterte administration, he said, could not simply violate a standing court order, “which enjoins government from touching, releasing or disbursing the coco levy fund.”

Piñol acknowledged that the release of the coco levy fund was a campaign  promise of Mr. Duterte and that after his assumption to office, the President started working on his commitments.

“He also instructed me to work on the immediate release and utilization of the coconut levy fund so that this would help the country’s coconut farmers,” he said.

“But until such time the TRO is lifted, President Duterte’s hands are tied,” he added.