Senators on Friday welcomed the Sandiganbayan decision which provides that the P74 billion worth of assets from the Coconut Industry Investment Fund belonged to the government and must be distributed to coconut farmers.
Senator Cynthia Villar, chairman of the Senate agriculture and food committee, said this was good news for the 3.5-million coconut farmers and their families.
This is also a realization of their initiatives to improve the lives of the coconut farmers and all stakeholders in the coconut industry, she said.
The bicameral conference committee on the bill creating the P100-billion coconut levy trust fund had earlier reconciled the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill 1233 and House Bill 5745 or the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Act.
The Act was among the priority legislative measures pushed by President Rodrigo Duterte during his State of the Nation Address on July 23.
Senate President Vicente Sotto said the coco levy bill, when it becomes a law, would be the instrument to be followed on what to do with the funds.
Senate Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto said the Sandiganbayan ruling was similar to what Congress did.
“That’s what we did. We created a trust fund for coco farmers which belong to the government,” he said.
Senator Risa Hontiveros said as early as 2014, her partymates had been talking against the claims of United Coconut Planters Bank and the Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corp. (Cocolife) which were seeking to cut the fund intended for coconut farmers.
“The decision should clear the way for legislation to distribute the levy to the farmers,” Hontiveros said.
“I voted against the Senate version of the coco levy bill because this is no longer trust fund as what the coconut farmers had been after,” she said.
Hontiveros was referring to the bicameral approval of the bill creating a P100-billion coconut levy trust fund to be used for 25 years for the benefit 3.5-million farmers.