Farmers seek axing of bank execs in coco levy conflict

LUCENA CITY—A Quezon-based group of coconut levy claimants has asked President Aquino to axe erring officials of the government-sequestered United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB).

“Heads should roll in UCPB, unless this anticoconut farmer maneuver by the UCPB board enjoys the blessings of Aquino himself who is also itching to profit from the coco levy fund,” Arvin Borromeo, spokesperson of Coco Levy Fund Ibalik sa Amin (CLAIM)-Quezon, said in a statement on Thursday.

The militant farmers’ group has been fighting the legal moves of UCPB since 2012 to lay claim on P15 billion of the estimated P71-billion coco levy fund.

Recently, farmers were again outraged when a law firm owned by a government-appointed member of the UCPB board of directors, Nilo Divina, was hired by the bank to handle its cases.

“Under the guise of filing cases, the law firm owned by a UCPB director is being paid out of coconut farmers’ money. This is a scam, a systematic plunder led by the UCPB insiders themselves,” Borromeo said.

Farmers from Quezon province are believed to be the biggest contributors to the coco levy fund, which was exacted from coconut farmers from 1973 to 1982 during the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos supposedly to develop the coconut industry.

Rafael Mariano, chair of the militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), described  the claim of UCPB over the coco levy fund as a “barefaced scam” and “another organized racket and plunder.”

In December 2012, UCPB filed two cases in Makati City against the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and asked the court to declare P15.6 billion of the

P71 billion worth of coco levy fund shares as owned by UCPB.

The move came less than two months after the PCGG remitted an estimated P56 billion in coconut levy funds to the Bureau of Treasury in October 2012.

“It clearly shows that the Aquino administration wants to continuously deny small coconut farmers of their legitimate and rightful claim over the funds,” he said.

The cases are now being aggressively pursued by UCPB in its favor, according to Oliver San Antonio, legal counsel of the antcorruption group National Coalition of Filipino Consumers.

San Antonio said there was conflict of interest in the investigation of the UCPB board because the case was being handled by the law firm of one of its members.

“Did he (Divina) get two cases? Three cases? More? How about cases from the subsidiaries of UCPB? How much in all did his firm earn while he sat on the UCPB board? This is information that our people deserve to know,” said San Antonio, a lawyer.

San Antonio also said hiring Divina’s law firm as external counsel could be seen as a way to “circumvent” the limitations in the compensation of UCPB’s board members.

KMP and CLAIM-Quezon reiterated calls for the passage of House Bill No. 1327, which seeks the return of the coco levy funds to coconut farmers.