Return coco levy funds to farmers, Kiko urged

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga , Philippines   – Presidential adviser on food security and agricultural modernization Francis Pangilinan should push for the return of the multibillion-peso coco levy funds and assets to small coconut farmers, a group said yesterday.

Coco Levy Funds Ibalik sa Amin (CLAIM) spokesman Nestor Villanueva said small coconut farmers will thwart President Aquino’s latest attempt to dip his hands in the coco levy fund.

He was referring to the reported draft executive order, dated April 7, 2014, aimed at privatizing the fund.

Villanueva said privatization will diminish and completely deny small coconut farmers of their legitimate and rightful claim over coco levy-funded assets and corporations, including the Coconut Industry Investment Fund oil mills and the United Coconut Planters Bank.

“The Aquino government is maneuvering to monetize coco levy-funded assets by putting these corporations in auction,” he said. “Now, both the more than P70 billion coco levy money and coco levy-acquired assets are vulnerable to being plundered again.”

Villanueva said the move “clearly shows small coconut farmers cannot expect the Aquino administration to build and develop the coconut industry.”

He said Aquino’s roadmap for the coconut industry is the sellout of coco levy funded assets.

“We challenge Pangilinan to cause the turnover of the coco levy fund-acquired assets instead of pushing the privatization of these assets and corporations,” he said.

Reports said among the key provisions of the draft executive order are the privatization of coconut levy assets and the organization of a multisectoral consultative committee for the coconut industry with the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) as the implementing arm.

Villanueva said genuine small coconut farmers from Cagayan, Aurora, Quezon, Bicol, Samar, Leyte, Aklan, and the Mindanao provinces will gather at the “Pambansang Konsultasyon ng mga Magsasaka sa Niyugan” on Aug. 27 in Guinobatan, Albay to tackle and unite against Aquino’s move to privatize coco levy-acquired assets.

They will also tackle the coco levy fund recovery and the coconut scale insect or “cocolisap” infestation.