(Eagle News) — A bicameral conference panel has reconciled the disagreeing provisions of the Senate’s and the House of Representatives’ versions of a bill creating the P100-billion coconut levy trust fund.
In a statement, Senator Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food and head of the Senate panel, said the final reconciled version of Senate Bill 1233 and House Bill 5745 will now be submitted for ratification by both houses of Congress.
The bill, Villar said, “includes provisions that would safeguard the approximately P100 billion coconut levy funds composed of cash and assets and ensure increased income for all coconut farmers such as investment of the trust fund in Philippine government securities to ensure the safety of the fund and for assured returns.”
The fund will be managed by the reconstituted Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) which will be composed of one representative from the PCA, Department of Finance, Department of Agriculture, Department of Budget and Management; one coconut industry stakeholder; and six coconut farmers, under the reconciled version.
Of the six, two each will come from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Under the reconciled version, the fund will also exist until it runs out, and the amount to be spent from the coco levy fund yearly is P5 billion, on top of the automatic appropriation of no less than P10 billion to the annual budget of the PCA sourced from the General Appropriations Act.
“I am optimistic that by the passage of this bill, our coconut farmers will not be left behind with the changing times and would be empowered to push through towards the next century,” Villar said.
Villar was joined by Sen. Francis Pangilinan in the Senate panel.
The House of Representatives contingent was composed of Reps. Jose Panganiban, Jr., Danilo Suarez, Arthur Yap, Sharon Garin, Celso Lobregat, Manuel Sagarbarria, Edcel Lagman, Evelina Escudero, Angelina Helen Tan and Cecilia Leonila Chavez.