Coconut farmers bat for nominees to UCPB board

Coconut farmers groups have submitted to Malacañang and to the Department of Finance (DOF), 10 nominees to the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) board.

At the same time, the farmers groups under the Multisectoral Task Force on Coco Levy (MTFCL) said they learned government is pushing for former Solidbank president and currently vice president of Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. Deogracias "Sonny" Vistan to replace Jeronimo Kilayco as UCPB chairman, while former Development Bank of the Philippines vice chairman Francisco del Rosario will replace its president, Lorenzo Tan.

The MTFCL is said to be pushing for former Finance Secretary Vicente Jayme to replace Kilayco. The MTFCL said its 10 nominees aside from Jayme include former Congressman Oscar Santos who is head of the Coconut Industry Reform Movement; Efren Villasenor, chairman and president of the Pambansang Kilusang ng Maliliit na Magniniyug or PEKSMAN and Vic Fabi, president of PAKISAMA.

Sources at the MTFCL said they could not yet reveal their other nominees, saying they could be pre-empted by other parties also pushing for their own nominees to the UCPB board.

While the MTFCL prefers Jayme to be the UCPB chairman, they said they would not object to the appointment of Vistan.

"He is highly qualified, we will try to work closely with him and try our best to collaborate with him. We hope that on the basis of his being a former Landbank president, he would understand the problems of small coconut farmers," the sources said.

Vistan was president of Land Bank of the Philippines during the term of former President Corazon C. Aquino.

They added that government should seriously consider the small farmers groups’ nominees which they believe will be able to seriously address their concerns, among which is the deteriorating productivity of coconut farms.

The MTFCL is lobbying to get 10 out of 15 board seats in UCPB, one of the country’s biggest and profitable commercial banks. – Rocel Felix