Farmers seek OK of coco levy use bill

Farmers groups on Tuesday urged lawmakers to speed up the passage of a law related to the use of the coco levy fund, but they disagreed on how the P75-billion kitty should be managed.

Jansept C. Geronimo, spokesperson of the Kilusan para sa Repormang Agraryo at Katarungan Panlipunan (Katarungan), said in a forum held in Quezon City that the issue had dragged for too long.

“I inherited the struggle to pursue [benefits from the coco levy] from my grandfather, a tenant farmer, who paid the coco levy from 1973 to the 1980s. It’s time to have a law that would let us benefit from [the hard-earned money]” Geronimo said.

Geronimo and his fellows in Katarungan favor a management committee that would administer the trust fund, which is now with the Bureau of the Treasury for safekeeping.

Members of Katarungan are based in the provinces of Quezon, Camarines Sur, Albay, Samar, Leyte, Negros Oriental, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley.

“With a committee, we are assured that we would be represented in the management of the coco levy fund,” he said.

The Confederation of Coconut Farmer’s Organizations of the Philippines (Confed) disagrees, favoring a management committee in the form of a state corporation created by law.

Confed executive director Charlie Avila said the agriculture committees of both the Senate and the House had agreed on the tack toward a management committee, which would insulate the coco levy fund from politics while ensuring representation of farmers.

But while a coco levy law is pending at the legislature, the Confed has yet to make good on its “intention” to withdraw a petition filed in the Supreme Court and which led to the issuance of a temporary restraining order against the disbursement of the trust fund.

“We have prepared a document for the withdrawal but our leaders have yet to meet and ratify this, which is needed before it could be filed in the Supreme Court,” Avila said.