Coco levy funds to finance scholarships for farmers’ families

MANILA, Philippines - Scholarships for coconut farmers and their families are being eyed as among those that will be financed by coco levy funds once a law is passed to that effect, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said.

“We have suggested that one of the uses will be (the setting up of a) permanent fund for providing scholarships for people in the coconut areas,” Dominguez said.

While President Duterte has agreed to the proposal, Dominguez said a new law should be passed in order to tap the P74-billion coco fund.

The amount represented taxes collected from coconut farmers during the Marcos administration, which were used by his crony, Eduardo Cojuangco, to buy stakes from various businesses.

In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that funds used to buy assets from San Miguel Corp. and United Coconut Planters Bank, among others, are public in nature, and should be given back to farmers.

After the ruling, former president Benigno Aquino III, Conjuangco’s nephew, issued two executive orders in March 2015 to manage the utilization of the fund for coconut farmers.

A farmers group questioned EOs 179 and 180 before the high court, which halted the fund use pending resolution of the case.

While they await the decision, Dominguez said the Cabinet has been formulating possible programs to be financed by the fund.

Aside from scholarships, funding better farming methods and new coconut varieties are among the options being looked at.

“I will support using these funds to provide scholarships, maybe in the state schools and colleges in the areas, and of course other kinds of support for the coconut-producing communities,” Dominguez said.

“So that (scholarship) has been agreed upon by the President, but we are still going through it and we understand that new legislation will be proposed for that...,” he added.

House Bill 557 and Senate Bill 52, which aim to utilize the coco levy fund, were re-filed and is pending at the committee level in both houses of Congress.