(Eagle News)–For Senator Cynthia Villar, there is no conflict between a bicameral conference-approved bill creating a trust fund for coconut farmers, and the Sandiganbayan ruling that ruled coco levy funds were owned by the government.
According to Villar, chair of the Senate committee of agriculture and food, the “cash and the assets from Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund” amounting to about P105 billion under the measure “will be distributed to coconut farmers at the rate of P5 billion per year until the fund runs out.”
She said the P5 billion per year will be allocated to the following: shared facilities, 30 percent; scholarship, 15 percent; empowerment of coconut farmer organization and their cooperatives, 15 percent; farm improvement to encourage self-sufficiency, 30 percent; and health and medical benefits, 10 percent.
The separate P10 billion allotted for the coconut industry, on the other hand, will be allotted to the following: infrastructure, 20 percent; planting, replanting and establishment of nurseries, 20 percent; intercropping, 10 percent; shared facilities, 20 percent; research and development, disease control and eradication, 10 percent; fertilization, 5 percent; new products and derivatives of coconut oil products, 5 percent; and credit through LandBank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines, 10 percent.
“I really do not see any conflicts. All the money in the fund will really go to the coconut farmers. We made sure of that. It is aimed at lifting coconut farmers, who are among the poorest in the country, out of poverty,” she said.
In a 14-page decision promulgated on Aug. 7, the Sandiganbayan’s second division ruled that at least P75 billion in coco levy fund and assets were owned by the government, reversing its own ruling appealed by the government that more hearings be conducted so United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and the United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corporation (Cocolife) could explain their side.