Villar backs coco levy 2

There is no conflict between the Sandiganbayan’s ruling that the state-owned coco-levy fund of the Marcos era vis-a-vis a proposed law creating a coco levy trust fund amounting to P100 billion.

Sen. Cynthia Villar aired this position yesterday as she pushed the measure already approved by the bicameral conference committee, saying the money will benefit 3.5 million coconut farmers for 25 years.

“I really do not see any conflict. All the money in the fund will go to the coconut farmers.

We made sure of that. It is aimed at lifting coconut farmers out of poverty,” she said.

Still, some coconut industry players averred that the proponents of the original coco levy fund during the Marcos years also said what Villar had said — that the fund will benefit farmers.

Villar, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, said P74 billion worth of assets from the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) shall be distributed to coconut farmers in accordance with the Sandiganbayan ruling.

That ruling by the anti-graft court in 2004 overturned an earlier decision which called for more hearings on the civil case involving United Coconut Planters Bank and the Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corporation.

In 2014, the Supreme Court affirmed the Sandiganbayan’s decision. Last week, the bicameral conference committee approved week a bill creating the P100-billion coco levy trust fund.

“The cash and the assets from Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund amounting to about P105 billion will be distributed to coconut farmers at the rate of P5 billion per year until the fund runs out,” Villar said.

“The P5 billion per year will be spent for the following: shared facilities, 30 percent; scholarship, 15 percent; empowerment of coconut farmer organization and their cooperatives, 15 percent; farm improvement to encourage self-sufficiency, 30 percent and health and medical benefits, 10 percent,” the senator said.

On top of the said allocations, the coconut industry will also get P10 billion from the national budget that will be spent for the development of the industry.

“This will be earmarked for infrastructure, 20 percent; planting, replanting and establishment of nurseries, 20 percent; intercropping, 10 percent; shared facilities, 20 percent; research and development, disease control and eradication, 10 percent; fertilization, 5 percent; new products and derivatives of cococut oil products, 5 percent and credit through LandBank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines, 10 percent,” Villar concluded.