`Farmers will have say in coco levy fund'

Malacañang allayed yesterday fears of coconut farmers that they will not be represented in the 10-member board of trustees that will control and supervise the planned P6-billion coconut levy trust fund.

Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora told The STAR that coconut farmers will get four seats in the board with the government also having four seats.

The two remaining seats will be for representatives of the United Coconut Planters Bank, which invested the multibillion-peso sequestered coconut levy fund in food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

Of the four seats reserved for coconut farmers' groups, one will be given to the Coconut Federation of the Philippines (Cocofed) headed by Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Clara Lobre-gat, a close political supporter of President Estrada.

Zamora said it is still being decided which go-vernment agencies will be represented in the board, which the President himself will chair.

The other day, Malacañang said it will recognize coconut landlords, or the owners of coconut plantations, as the ones who put up the coco levy fund during the Marcos administration.

This came after the President admitted that the issuance of the executive order on the setting up of the coco levy trust fund is being delayed by certain court claims filed by various coconut farmers' groups which are insisting that they be made direct beneficiaries of the coco levy fund.

"Actually, the coconut planters are the ones who set up the fund, not the farmers. The farmers did not have the money. The ones who made the investments were planters who owned the plantations, they gave the levies," the President said Tuesday.

"The Supreme Court has already decided that it (coco levy fund) is a private fund impressed with public character. So it is private," he added.

The President said the coco levy funds still cannot be considered public funds. They remain as "government-sequestered" money until ownership is decided by the courts, he said.

In his weekly radio program "Itawag Mo Kay Erap" over dzRH yesterday, the President said the proposed executive order is still being "carefully refined" by his office to avoid the expected criticisms and allegations of anomalies from his detractors.

At the same time, Mr. Estrada pointed out that he was able to convince his political patron, businessman Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr., to give up the remaining 27 percent of SMC shares, which makes up the estimated P50 billion in coco levy funds.

This is the amount which will be converted into a trust fund for the rehabilitation of the country's moribund coconut industry.

The President also clarified that the coco levy trust fund will not be given as "doleouts" to coconut farmers amid the demand from farmers' groups that the money be distributed to them directly as their share from the 27 percent of Cojuangco's share in SMC.

"My general vision here is we will not in any way touch the principal (P50 billion), only the interest. This will be about P5 billion to P6 billion a year which we will use for the coconut industry rehabilitation," the Chief Executive said.