Quezon 4th District Representative Angelina “Helen” Tan on Saturday lauded the signing by President Duterte into the law of “Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund” that would create a coconut levy trust fund for coconut farmers.
“I am deeply happy that the coconut levy trust fund is now finally a law. I would like to thank President Duterte for signing this important piece of legislation that will set the directions and policies for the development and rehabilitation of the coconut industry within 50 years”, Tan said, noting that the measure was one of her pet legislations since her first term in office.
“As a third term member of the House of Representatives representing one of the coconut-producing provinces in the country, I was witness not only to the suffering of our coconut farmers but to the evolution of various versions of the bills that seek to provide a policy for the utilization of the coconut levy fund. I had been privileged to have authored one of the earlier versions of the bill and chaired the Technical Working Group (TWG) of the Committee on Agriculture and Food that crafted the substitute version during the 16th Congress,’’ she explained.
President Duterte vetoed the bill in 2019 for supposed lack in safeguards and unconstitutionality but lawmakers refiled the measure in the 18th Congress.
Republic Act (RA) 11524 mandates the Bureau of Treasury to transfer P10 billion to the trust fund in the first year; P10 billion in the second year; P15 billion in the third year; P15 billion in the fourth year; and P25 billion during the fifth year.
At least P5 billion from the trust fund will be used for programs such as planting and replanting of hybrid coconut seedlings, training of coconutThe collection of coconut levy started in 1971 under the late President Ferdinand Marcos. The Supreme Court’s declared that the coco levy fund belonged to the government for the benefit of the country’s coconut farmers.
However, despite such decision, the disposition of coconut levy funds remained unsettled until the enactment of the law.