Farmers demand audit of P74B coco levy fund Senator Marcos assures them of help

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines  —  Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., on Thursday assured farmers he will help them in looking into the proper use of the P74 billion coconut levy fund, now in custody of the national government.

“If you allow me, I volunteer to help you towards the realization of your vision to improve the coconut industry and to ensure the fund that grew through your hard work will not be misused,” Marcos told the members of the Confederation of Coconut Farmers Organizations of the Philippines (CCFOP).

At least 700 farmers from regions 6, 7 and 8 came to this capital city of Bohol to attend the consultation about the coco levy fund and tackle issues surrounding it.

Marcos told them he was in Bohol to listen to their sentiments and gather proposals on what to do with fund for the benefit of the country’s coconut industry.

The Supreme Court on January 24, 2012 ruled that the coco levy funds “are owned by the government to be used only for the benefit of all coconut farmers and for the development of the coconut industry, thus the proper and prudent use of these money would benefit the entire country,” he said.

Jun Ordinario, federation president of the Small Coconut Farmers Organization of Bohol that is a member of CCFOP, said the farmers protested as illegal the transfer of the fund to the National Treasury.

The CCFOP had urged the Senate to enact a law constituting the coco levy funds and assets into a Coconut Industry Trust Fund and “providing administrative structure to manage it to ensure that its use will benefit the coco industry and the farmers.”

The federation also urged the Commission on Audit “to audit the funds that were transferred to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr).” In a manifesto, the CCFOP further urged the Presidential Commission on Good Government to publish in various national newspapers the list of coco levy assets.

Government officials shall also be held accountable for the “illegal transfer of the P56 billion of the levy fund to the BTr,” said the organization’s manifesto.

Among the signatories of the manifesto were Efren Villasenor, CCFOP chair; Charlie Avila, president of the Phil. Association of Small Coconut Farmers Organization; Domingo Espina, president of the Philippine Coconut Producers Federation; Oscar Solidor, CCFOP secretary; CCFOP directors Datu Mao Andong Jr., Jose Lobregat and Rodulfo Vargas; and John Atara of COnFED.

Last June 30, the SC en banc issued a temporary restraining order against the Aquino government, as respondents, stopping the implementation of Executive Orders 179 and 180 and the use, disbursement and disposal of the levy assets and funds.

Name respondents in the TRO petition, which the CCFOP filed, were President Benigno Aquino III; Acting Commissioner Richard Roger Amurao of the PCGG; Chairman Cesar Villanueva of the Governance Commission for Government Owned-and-Controlled corporations; and Justice Secretary Leila De Lima.

“These EOs would have caused a new plunder of the funds had we not been quick enough to file a prohibition, under Rule 65, with application for issuance of injunctive writs,” CCFOP said.

After getting the TRO from the SC, the CCFOP further demanded from the government “to appoint coconut farmers to the board of directors of the Philippine Coconut Authority, as mandated by law, and that PCA be detached from the office of the Presidential Assistant on Food Security and Agricultural Modernization,” formerly headed by Secretary Kiko Pangilinan.

“We have to remain vigilant and continue our struggle for the proper usage of the funds by its intended beneficiaries, the coconut farmers, and for the development of the coconut industry,” CCFOP said.

The federation also urged the national government to conduct a dialogue between the government officials concerned and CCFOP officers to thresh out kinks of the coco levy funds, and for Congress to immediately act on the federation’s proposed bill on the utilization and management of the funds.

PCA Regional Office 7’s officer-in-charge Jun Lago earlier said in an interview the coconut levy fund, now under custody of the national government, remained unused as there have been no policies yet on how to utilize this for the benefit of the farmers.

The DyTR radio meanwhile got reports that Bohol coco farmers have wanted to make use of the P60 billion of the fund, declared as public money.

The PCA had said it wanted to be the sole agency to handle the funds so that it could program these for the benefit of millions of coco farmers in the country, but it has to wait for the decision of the higher officials about it.

Meanwhile, PCA bared the prices of copra this season were good: P28.75 per kilo for “resicada,” and P21.75 per kilo for “pasa.” Four nuts produce a kilo of copra.

PCA-Bohol OIC Primo Galindez said Bohol province has more than 10 million fruit-bearing coconut trees in over 100,000 hectares. Of the 174,000 farmers, however, only 87,000 of them were registered with the agency, thus he urged others to enlist themselves at the PCA office in Tagbilaran.

PCA has been providing coco seedlings as replacement for those already old trees. Sixty-year-old trees no longer bear fruits, thus should be cut for lumber purposes. It added that it maintained a three-hectare nursery in Loay town and another 150 hectares in Ubay.

Production of coconuts has been placed at an average of 90 to 95 nuts per tree per/year, for fully fertilized, and  35 nuts per year, if not fertilized. (FREEMAN)