The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) said the total coco-levy fund that must be remitted to the coco farmers is at P80 billion and not P60 billion as earlier claimed by government lawyers.
PCGG Chairman Andres Bautista gave the final figures to the Senate subcommitee on finance following the Supreme Court’s final and executory decision declaring the coco-levy funds as public in nature that must be remitted to the coco farmers.
But Sen. Ralph Recto, head of the finance Senate subcommittee, said since the PCGG figures conflict with the earlier figures given by three government agencies, an investigation on the exact coco-levy fund must be conducted.
Based on the figures presented to the Senate, he said a final audit of the supposed coco-levy funds that were collected during the Marcos regime must be conducted.
The Asset Privatization Trust placed the coco-levy funds at P100 billion, he said. At the same time, a briefer presented by a financial institution places the figure at P73 billion.
However, Recto said government lawyers place it at P60 billion, while a Cabinet member said the funds are now at P72 billion.
He said the final figures came from PCGG citing the funds are now worth P80 billion.
Recto said an audit by the Commission on Audit (COA) “can settle the confusion and present us with a clear picture on value, status, interests, income and assets of the fund.”
He said that COA has both the expertise and the mandate “to follow the money and catalogue the assets.”
The coco-levy funds, he said, were used by various corporations for finance ventures.
“We need an audit to show where these are and the state of investments,” Recto said.
The coco-levy funds were invested in seven oil mills, as well as seven other firms engaged in a wide range of activities ranging from banking to insurance to chemicals and 10 copra trading companies.
One of the investments involving 753.8 million shares in San Miguel Corp. is worth P56 billion.
“But for the government to properly administer the fund and distribute the dividends, it must have an idea of how much money is involved,” Recto said.