PCA eyes coco levy fund for ‘Pablo’ farm rehab

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) is considering the coco levy fund as possible funding source for the rehabilitation of thousands of hectares of coconut farms destroyed by super typhoon “Pablo” in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley. 

Damage to coconut farms in the two provinces has been placed at more than P5 billion covering 101,356.5 hectares planted with over 10 million coconut trees. 

Davao Oriental, which accounts for bulk of the damage (over P4 billion), used to be the country’s leading producer of coconuts. 

PCA Administrator Euclides Forbes said there is no longer any legal impediment in using the coconut levy fund, adding that President Aquino could order its use for the rehabilitation efforts.

 “There is no more judicial obstacle for the President to use the coco levy fund. It is already a released decision,” Forbes said. 

Forbes was referring to a Supreme Court ruling last year, affirming a 2004 Sandiganbayan decision to award the 24 percent block of shares in San Miguel Corp. (SMC) to the government which holds it in trust for the coconut farmers. 

The coco levy fund was raised through a forced tax imposed from 1973 to 1980s during the Marcos regime for the coconut farmers.

The fund, however, was allegedly used to acquire assets and SMC shares of stocks registered under the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF).

Reports said the 24 percent block of SMC shares now runs more than 750 million shares valued at P50 billion to P100 billion. 

Citing reports of CIIF, Forbes said the dividends alone from the SMC block of shares placed at P13 billion could be a substantial funding source to rehabilitate devastated coconut farms in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley. 

“The President need not use the principal. He can use only 20 percent of the P13 billion and the whole Davao (provinces) and Compostela Valley can be rehabilitated,” he told the media in a recent visit here with Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala. 

Forbes vowed to make a formal request to the President to release a portion of the coco levy fund.  

He added though that the President has been informed of the Agriculture department’s intention “to use a portion of the coconut levy fund to rehabilitate the coconut industry and to promote the welfare of coconut farmers.”