News Update Senate urges SC: Release coco levy funds to farmers

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, chairman of the Senate committee on food and agriculture, on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court (SC) to facilitate the release of the escrowed coco levy fund to coconut farmers. In a statement on his website, the senator said "there is no debate that the coco levy funds were sourced from the blood, sweat, and tears of our coconut farmers yet they have not benefited from the fruits of their labor. We must correct this injustice and ensure that the funds are made available in order to lift our coconut farmers from the bondage of poverty.” The release also said that during a Tuesday senate hearing, it was disclosed that the coco levy fund is now worth P120 billion, "yet not even its incurring P7.8 billion annual interest could be released to the farmers." “The funds need to be released immediately to their rightful recipients — the farmers. We must end decades of injustice by ensuring that the funds are plowed back to programs that will raise the incomes of our coconut farmers and improve their profitability,” Pangilinan said. The fund was set up to develop the coconut industry, but was allegedly used for personal gains by Marcos and his cronies, particularly businessman Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco’s, who supposedly used the fund to acquire majority stake of San Miguel Corp. (SMC). On April 12, the Supreme Court ruled that Cojuangco’s 20-percent stake in SMC does not form part of the so-called coco levy funds and does not belong to the Philippine government. Coco levy is a tax exacted from coconut farmers from 1973 to 1982, during the term of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Cojuangco and Marcos-era officials bought the United Coconut Planters Bank using coco levy funds. — AL/VS