Sign coco levy EO, Palace urged

Coconut farmers and landless seasonal rural coconut farm workers represented by two national coconut farmers’ federations urged President Estrada yesterday to immediately sign the executive order (EO) for the release of the P50-billion coconut levy fund to help avert the collapse of the coconut industry and provide immediate relief to more than five million coconut farmers and workers and their families.

This was the gist of a letter sent to Agrarian Reform Secretary Horacio Morales Jr. by Romulo Tapayan, farmers’ sectoral representative of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) and president of Kapisanan ng Magniniyog sa Pilipinas (Kampil) and Niyugan.

Tapayan said, "While the Estrada administration is deeply embroiled in a fierce political struggle to preserve itself, five million coconut farmers and workers and their families are fighting a real life-and-death struggle to keep body and soul intact. Unfortunately for us, we do not have the luxury of time to wait for the most serious political crisis that has hit the Estrada presidency to resolve itself."

An immediate solution being sought by Tapayan and other peasant leaders representing Kampil and Niyugan is the signing of the EO on the coconut levy which has been stalled for sometime due to disagreements among the parties involved over the audit of funds by the Commission on Audit (COA) and other issues.

The coconut levy fund has grown to about P50 billion since the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos decreed its compulsory collection in 1973. Part of the fund has been invested in San Miguel Corp. This portion and its interest was sequestered by the Aquino administration after the EDSA Revolution in 1986.

The coconut levy fund has been the object of intense and prolonged court battles and remains inaccessible to coconut farmer-beneficiaries from the time of Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos and now, Mr. Estrada.