Lucena City Bishop Emilio Marquez hit the nail right on the head, so to speak, when he said that “the time to use the coco levy is now as it could be used to revive destroyed coconut farms and give livelihood assistance to poor farmers (“Quezon farmers want coco levy accounted for,” Across the Nation, 7/30/14).
If I may suggest, compensation must be extended to farmers whose rambutan and lanzones trees intercropped with coconuts were devastated by Typhoon “Glenda,” particularly in Laguna province. Thousands of those crops were laid waste by the storm, not to mention the bananas, pineapples, mangosteen, avocados, etc.
Finally, I fully support the demand of Katarungan-Quezon (Kilusan para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungang Panlipunan) for the “thorough accounting of the coco levy fund by neutral and independent examiners.”
—CRISOSTOMO B. VILAR,
former vice mayor, Pagsanjan, Laguna;
chair, Cocofed, Pagsanjan Chapter