Refiling of coco levy bill in Senate eyed

Sen. Cynthia Villar said she would refile the coconut levy trust fund bill in the Senate and expressed optimism that President Duterte would finally approve the measure after vetoing it in February.

Her statement came just after the President called for the immediate passage of the measure in his fourth State of the Nation Address on Monday. Once signed into law, it would bring P105 billion into the coconut industry which had been suffering from a slump in copra prices.

“I’m refiling the bill and hopes to pass it this year,” Villar said in her keynote speech at the 2019 Sustainable Agriculture Forum on Tuesday.

“President Duterte said it remained his priority to uplift the lives of coconut farmers and further develop the coconut industry through the urgent utilization of the coco levy fund.”

“We just have to iron out details of the bill… We’re confident the President will sign it already,” she added.

Duterte vetoed the bill in February despite the restlessness of coconut farmers who had been waiting for decades for the distribution of the fund. His office said the veto was due to provisions that violated the Constitution.

He also vetoed a related bill that sought to strengthen the Philippine Coconut Authority for “lack of vital safeguards.”

However, Villar said the Office of the President only wanted the insertion of two executive orders in the bill, which would help fast-track the consolidation of all assets collected through the coco levy program.

Of the P105-billion fund, P75 billion in cash is kept in the Bureau of Treasury while P30 billion is still in the form of property and machinery.

“The problem is that the assets that would be sold to generate the additional P30 billion has pending cases so they (OP) want me to integrate in the bill the executive order upheld by the SC about the disposition of the assets… We will be incorporating that portion,” Villar said.

These measures are EO 179 and EO 180, which stated that all coco levy assets must be administered by the government and all funds must be used for the implementation of a coconut industry road map, respectively.

As for the perceived problem at the PCA, Villar said the agency was reorganized to include eight Cabinet members, six farmer-representatives and the head of PCA to oversee the fund, assuring that the money would be “controlled by the government.”

The vetoed version of the coco levy trust fund bill sought to consolidate the levy collections from coconut farmers into a trust fund for the development of the sector, and strengthen the role of the PCA for the efficient implementation of projects.

It would also provide an annual subsidy of P10 billion for replanting, intercropping and shared facilities program.