Coconut farmers want to get 8 out of 15 UCPB board seats

Farmers’ groups are pressing for representation at the coco levy-funded United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and are demanding eight out of 15 board seats in one of the country’s biggest and most profitable commercial banks.

At the same time, the Multisectoral Task Force on Coco Levy (MTFCL) will petition the Supreme Court to once and for all to decide on whether the coco levy funds are public or private funds.

The majority representation in UCPB is expected to ease the desire of the various coconut farmers’ groups to set foot at another coco-levy funded entity-food and drink giant San Miguel Corp. (SMC) – and cost its current chairman and chief executive officer, Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr., a close associate of deposed President Joseph Estrada.

Omy Royandohan, a member of the negotiating panel of the MTFCL which groups the various coconut farmers’ organizations, said government supports their move to ask for majority representation in UCPB. He said whoever will represent the coconut farmers in UCPB will be crucial in their bid to get the disputed 47 percent stake in SMC.

"The nominees in UCPB will also be nominated to SMC," Royandohan said.

Getting in the nominees of the MTFCL in the UCPB board will mark the first time that farmers groups’ will so be represented.

Royandohan said they plan to propose some changes, one of which is for the UCPB to go back to its original mission which is to provide funding for beneficiaries of the coco levy fund.

He said UCPB will still continue to discharge its function as a commercial bank but its priority will be to dedicate a greater part of its resources for its social responsibility functions.

"The idea is to pattern it after Land Bank of the Philippines which is intended to help agrarian reform beneficiaries," Royandohan said.

Royandahon said the MTCFL is agreeable to an earlier proposal that would have former Finance Secretary Vicente Jayme who is active with the MTCFL, replace UCPB chairman Jeronimo Kilayco, while former Development Bank of the Philippines vice president Francisco del Rosario will replace its president Lorenzo Tan.

Both UCPB and SMC have shareholdings sequestered by the Philippine Commission on Good Government (PCGG). The shares are believed to have been bought using coconut levy funds collected from coconut farmers in the early 1980s.

The Arroyo administration plans to oust Cojuangco from the SMC chairmanship once the courts decide in favor of the government on the issue of ownership of the disputed 47 percent stake in the food and drink giant.

Government is convinced Cojuangco’s voting rights in SMC should be given back to the government through the PCGG which previously held the shares.

The PCGG was created by former President Corazon Aquino to go after suspected Marcos cronies and take into custody assets they amassed under questionable circumstances.

Aquino and Fidel Ramos sequestered Cojuangco’s shares in SMC, and never assigned to Cojuangco, proxies for an estimated 47 percent block of shares government held in SMC. This prevented Cojuangco from continuing control of the country’s most profitable food and beverage company. The courts though, allowed Cojuangco to vote his 20 percent disputed stake in the company.

Cojuangco’s fortunes in SMC were reversed in 1998 when just days after being President, Estrada assigned the remaining 27 percent proxy votes to Cojuangco who bankrolled his candidacy. Thus, Cojuangco was able to regain control of SMC.

Former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez said former President Estrada had no right to give the voting rights to Cojuangco, especially since the ownership of the 47 percent shares was still being disputed and was pending with the Sandiganbayan.