Though she is one of the initial authors of the proposed Coconut Levy Fund law when she was still a member of the 16th Congress, presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo said she has objections to the new version signed by President Duterte into law earlier this year.
During the Agri 2022 online forum on Monday, Nov. 29, Robredo emphasized that farmers should be well-represented in the creation of the fund and the membership to the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), which only gave three out of nine seats of its board to farmers group.
“Ang pinaka-concern ko doon iyong representation ng ating coconut farmers. Ang aking pagtingin ay di siya sapat (My most concern is about the representation of our coconut farmers. In my opinion, it is not enough),” she said.
“Dapat iyong lahat ng mga policy-making bodies, dapat iyong representation ng mga farmers ay pareho ng representation nung pamahalaan (In all the policy-making bodies, the representation of the farmers should be the same as the representation of the government),” Robredo added.
The PCA is the government agency tasked to collect and manage the collected tax from the coconut farmers. It started during the Marcos presidency when then-President Ferdinand Marcos appointed Eduardo Cojuango Jr. as head of the PCA.
READ: Farmers want representation in Coco Levy Trust Fund committee
Cojuangco used the coconut levy fund to acquire United Coconut Planters Bank, San Miguel Corp., oil mills, among many other businesses.
But in 2012, the Supreme Court declared that the fund belonged to the government for the use of coconut farmers.
The Republic Act No. 11524 or the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act, which was signed by Duterte, empowers the PCA to craft a development plan for the coconut industry for the next 50 years.
It will also create a trust fund that will be used for several programs supposedly to train and capacitate coconut farmers.
Groups, however, opposed the bill because of the “marginalization” of farmers. Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) Chairman Leonardo Montemayor earlier said that there is no coconut farmer representation in the powerful Trust Fund Management Committee despite it using the funds from levies on coconut farmers.
Robredo has the same concerns, saying that the funds should not be wasted on “administrative costs.”
“Dapat iyong boses nila iyong papakinggan kung saan mapupunta iyong pondo. Dapat iyong pondo napupunta talaga siya as direct subsidies sa mga coconut farmers (Their voices should be heard about where to put the funds. The funds should be used as direct subsidies for coconut farmers),” she said.
The Vice President also wants to capacitate coconut farmers, adding that most of them are into farming copra, or dried coconut kernels from which oil is obtained.
READ: Robredo wants Pinoy farmers to become agri-entrepreneurs
Robredo lamented that only the buyers of copra are profiting from coconut farmers because they are the ones who sell these to oil mills.
“So, the reason why I’m telling you this is kailangan lang silang i-capacitate eh. Kailangan sila pakitaan ng halimbawa, saka kaalaman, na mayroong pagkakakitaan outside of kopra (they need to be capacitated. They need to see examples, and knowledge, that there is more profit outside copra),” she explained.
The aspiring president suggested that government agencies should create “benchmarks” to understand what more coconut farmers need.
By creating such benchmarks, the government can help achieve its “target” of alleviating coconut farmers from extreme poverty.