Coco farmers badly need coco levy funds to rehab coco industry

I would like to take strong exception to the statement of Ramon Tulfo in his column “On Target” (Inquirer, 4/3/12) to wit: “There’s no use crying over the contentious coconut levy funds that the Supreme Court has ruled out recently.”

We, coconut farmers, particularly the small ones, badly need the coco levy funds to finance the rehabilitation of our senile coconut plantations.

Precisely, we want to use the levy funds/money for the purchase of fertilizers, planting materials and cash assistance to tide us over while waiting for the newly planted coconuts to bear fruits within a period of 7-10 years.

Finally, many of us cannot help but make copra from mature coconuts whose by-products are coconut shells that can be processed into charcoals, and husks that can used in making upholstery, as pointed out by Tulfo himself.

—CRISOSTOMO B. VILAR,

vice mayor,

Pagsanjan, Laguna;

chair, Cocofed, Pagsanjan