With the elections over, it’s time to prioritize the coconut levy issue.
In November 2012, Palace spokesperson Abigail Valte told coconut farmers to wait for a clear-cut policy on the disposition of the funds as the Presidential Task Force on Coconut Levy was still finalizing its recommendations. Since that time, however, nothing followed.
What will be the task force’s final recommendations regarding the management, use and disposition of the P71 billion recovered from Danding Cojuangco and San Miguel Corp.? Will President Aquino act in a manner true and faithful to the Supreme Court decision, which states: “only for the benefit of all coconut farmers and for the development of the coconut industry”?
A Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas leader reportedly raised a howl over a plan to use coconut levy funds for other purposes. He cited points 5.0 and 5.1 of the 13-page memorandum issued by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) last April 2013 for FY 2014 budgeting. Both points cited programs in municipalities and communities with economic potential and a large population of poor people but outside existing growth hubs. The data used to justify the programs showed that the communities had no access to, and/or were located far from national highways. The insinuation was to use coconut levy money for the construction of farm-to-market roads in the 12 coconut-producing provinces. While definitely a concern of government, the construction of farm-to-market roads is beyond the purview of the Supreme Court decision.
Also last November, a small coconut farmers’ conference was organized by the Coconut Industry Reform Movement in coordination with the Department of Agriculture to validate the feasibility of alternative programs targeting the small coconut farmers and the coconut industry, and to discuss how these may be integrated. The conference was attended by farmers from Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao, advocates and industry stakeholders. The recommendations gathered from this conference were passed on by Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to the task force.
According to the DBM, no allocation has until now been sourced from coconut levy funds; an executive order is needed to authorize any release of such funds.
The DBM statement may have been meant to assure the public of transparency, but it speaks as well of the government’s indecisiveness when it comes to the the handling and use of the funds. Since October 2012, the government has had in its disposition P71 billion in cash, and all it has done has been to exert every effort to “freeze” the funds, thus depriving millions of impoverished coconut farmers long- and much-awaited benefits.
When and how shall government finally decide on this issue? Before it does, it may be well to remind its high officials that from the very beginning, the policy to collect coconut levy has been very clear: “so that the coconut farmers become participants in and beneficiaries of the development and growth of the coconut industry.”
—VADESHNA A. SURIO,
program assistant,
Coconut Industry
Reform Movement,
coir_inc@yahoo.com