Monday, March 31, 2008 Farmers against Arroyo diverting coco levy funds
COCONUT farmers in Negros Oriental criticized President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for her statement that coco levy funds could be used to finance the administration's proposed diesel coupon scheme.
Eugene Quirante, liaison officer of Centro Saka Incorporated and lead convener of the Negros Farmers Council, said the President does not own the coco levy funds. She cannot just use the fund in any way she pleases, he added.
"At the very least, Arroyo should have the decency of first consulting the real owners of the coco levy. Perhaps she has forgotten that the Supreme Court has ruled that coco levy funds are owned by the coconut farmers," stressed Quirante in a separate interview with the members of the media.
Quirante even pointed to the proposed diesel coupon subsidy scheme, being promoted as a pro-poor program, as being conceived to boost up the Arroyo administration's dropping credibility.
"They do not seem to realize that by siphoning funds from the coconut levy, they would be stealing from the poor coconut farmers," he said.
He quoted Wigberto Tañada, chairman of the Multi-Sectoral Task Force on the Coconut Levy (MSTF), as saying that "the laws and decrees on the coconut levy categorically state that the coco levy funds are trust funds for the exclusive use of the coconut farmers and for the development of the coconut industry."
The laws clearly dictate that the funds should only be used for farm production and marketing, credit support, processing, replanting and research related to the development of the coconut industry and for the benefit of the small coconut farmers.
He said the Arroyo administration violates several decrees and laws if it pursues the diversion of funds from the coconut levy to its proposed diesel coupon program.
Omi Royandoyan, national executive director of Centro Saka, said there was a similar attempt to divert the fund last year when Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves said that it could be used to offset the budget deficit.
MSTF chair Tañada agreed and said that, "back then, the counter argument from the coconut farmers' ranks was the same-i.e. the coco levy fund belongs to the coconut farmers and should only be used for coconut industry-related concerns."
"Instead of thinking of ways to divert funds from the coconut levy, the Arroyo administration should pursue full economic recovery. It should also desist from brokering a compromise agreement over the coco levy assets with Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco," suggested Joey Faustino of the Coconut Industry Reform Movement (COIR).
Ka Oca Santos of the MSTF also commented that, "if the Arroyo administration wants to regain the confidence of the people, it would be better off devising a scheme that would tax the well-off rather than the have-nots and to implement real pro-poor and sustainable development programs for the benefit of the coconut farmers in the 80,000 coconut-producing barangays." (EBS)
