FARMERS’ groups urged the House of Representatives and the Senate to determine whether a trust fund committee or a government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC) would handle the disposal of the P75-billion coconut-levy fund.
“We think it would take time for lawmakers to settle the issue on whether a committee or a GOCC should handle the coco-levy fund,” said Jansept C. Geronimo, spokesman of Kilusan para sa Repormang Agraryo at Katarungang Panlipunan (Katarungan), in a forum held in Quezon City.
For Confederation of Coconut Farmer’s Organizations of the Philippines (Confed) Executive Director Charlie Avila, the government should create a coconut trust-fund corporation instead of a committee to shield the fund’s use from “political influence”.
“The coco-levy fund will not need a mere committee but a full-fledge GOCC that has the requisite characteristics of stability, flexibility, autonomy, transparency, accountability and, therefore, the capacity for good and effective governance,” Avila said in the same forum.
However, Geronimo said a GOCC may hinder the participation of coconut farmers in the management of the coco-levy fund.
“Our position right now is to give farmers the right to participate and representation. We are cautious in the creation of the corporation as it may not allow representation of coconut farmers in its board,” Geronimo said.
“That’s why we are pushing for a committee wherein at least half of its members would be coconut farmers. The GOCC may put in place requirements which farmers could not meet,” he added.
Lawmakers have yet to agree on whether a trust fund committee or corporation would handle the coco-levy fund.
In November 2016 the Senate Committees on Agriculture and Finance approved Senate Bill (SB) 1233, or “An Act Creating the Coconut Farmers and Industry Fund, Providing for its Management and Utilisation and for Other Purposes,” which seeks to create an 11-man Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Committee.
The committee will be attached to the Office of the President and will comprise six representatives from the coconut sector and the heads of the departments of Finance, Agriculture, and Trade and Industry; the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), and the Philippine Coconut Authority.
Various bills related to the handling of the fund have also been filed at the House of Representatives. House Bill (HB) 62 seeks to create a 15-man Philippine Coconut Farmers Welfare and Industry Development Corporation, while HB 102 calls for the set up of a 15-man Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Committee.
Earlier, Sen. Francis N. Pangilinan urged the House of Representatives to fast-track the discussion on the coco-levy trust fund bill rather than focusing on the revival of death penalty in the country.
The Duterte administration is bent on using the coco-levy funds to aid coconut farmers, according to Neda Director General Ernesto M. Pernia. Pernia said this was one of the major discussions in the last meeting of the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council.
“We want to use it during this administration in terms of improving agriculture, especially [the] coconut sector,” he said. “The farmers who really should be benefitting from [it] would be able to get some benefits out of coco-levy funds.”
Pernia said the government is bent on doing this, especially now that there are no legal impediments preventing the release of the funds.
Cai U. Ordinario and Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas