THE Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the claimant’s movement Coco Levy Fund Ibalik sa Amin (CLAIM) on Friday said they prefer direct cash distribution of the recovered coco-levy fund to small coconut farmers and urged the incoming administration to create a genuine small coconut farmers’ fund to help the sector.
KMP Secretary-General Antonio Flores said the direct return of the multibillion-peso coco-levy fund to small farmers is long overdue.
He said President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte’s pronouncement to return the fund to its rightful owner is a welcome development for small coconut farmers.
According to Flores, KMP and CLAIM are holding on Duterte’s promise to return the coco-levy fund to its rightful owners within the first 100 years of his administration. “We are pleased that Duterte is working to put action into his words,” they said.
Flores said Duterte’s legal team should consider the “direct cash distribution of the funds to small coconut farmers and utilization of the money for the genuine development of the local coconut industry,” which has been the clamor of KMP and CLAIM ever since.
“We strongly call for the immediate and direct distribution of the coco-levy funds to small coconut farmers through social benefits and in the form of cash. This legitimate and just demand addresses the worsening poverty and hunger suffered by small coconut farmers,” CLAIM-Quezon coordinator Arvin Borromeo said.
The immediate cash distribution of the coco-levy funds to small coconut farmers was first suggested by the late Sen. Joker Arroyo in April 2012.
“There is no pronouncement from the government that the farmers would be cash recipients of the court decision. They would be incidental beneficiaries when the coconut industry is revived,” KMP quoted Arroyo as saying.
Furthermore, Arroyo said: “The farmers parted with hard-earned cash, but they would not be given cash in return; they would be given benefits in kind, tools, seedlings, credit facilities, etc. The irony of it all is that the principal beneficiaries, the government and the industry, had not contributed to the coco-levy fund.”
The KMP and CLAIM are also pushing for the creation of a “Genuine Small Coconut Farmers’ Fund,” which shall not be part of the general funds of the national government and shall be used exclusively for the benefit of genuine small
coconut farmers.
Under a Genuine Small Coconut Farmers’ Fund, the entire coco-levy fund and assets, including but not limited to the United Coconut Planters’ Bank and coco-levy fund-acquired coconut oil mills, will be administered, utilized and used for the benefits of small coconut farmers and the genuine development of the coconut industry in support of national industrialization.
Aside from direct cash distribution of the coco-levy money to small coconut farmers, CLAIM and KMP said it is also imperative that the incoming Duterte administration also recover the “20-percent block of coco-levy fund shares controlled by Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.
“Cojuangco must also be held accountable for the plunder of the funds,” Flores added.
KMP and CLAIM previously listed a seven-point agenda to boost the plight of coconut farmers across the country. These include the creation of a Small Coconut Farmers’ Council to directly manage and administer the recovered coco-levy fund.
The groups also said small coconut farmers should be the primary beneficiaries of the fund in the form of cash and other social benefits, including, but not limited to, pension benefits, medical and hospitalization benefits, maternity benefits and educational assistance, including scholarships.
Socioeconomic programs and projects of small coconut farmers through their recognized organizations/cooperatives, the groups said, should be financed by the recovered coco-levy funds and assets, and the shares and dividends from the investments made from coco levy, including assets and corporations (CIIF-Oil Mills Group, 14 Holding Companies, United Coconut Planters’ Bank and Cocolife)