A COALITION of coconut farmers has lauded the proposed extension for coconut farmers registration under Republic Act (RA) 11524 or the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act that would qualify them to access benefits from the coco levy trust fund now amounting to over P100 billion.
"We have always maintained that no coconut farmer should be left behind in the process of implementing the programs and services under the law despite our continuing demand for a more significant representation in the management body created by the law and for the government to restudy the privatization of coconut levy assets especially those that could directly benefit coconut farmers,” said the Bantay Cocolevy Alliance.
The group hailed Senate's Chair of the Committee on Food, Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Senator Cynthia Villar and co-authors Senator Kiko Pangilinan and Senator Risa Hontiveros for sponsoring Senate Resolution 736, which responded immediately to the demand of coconut farmers organizations to extend the 90-day deadline for coconut farmers registration.
RA 11524, which took effect on March 13, 2021, directed the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to do the coconut farmers registration in 90 days or by June 11, 2021.
The proposed 90-day extension would allow coconut farmers to be registered until September 9, 2021.
According to Bantay Cocolevy Alliance, it lobbied for the extension of the registration “for fear that more than a million coconut farmers could be left behind if the deadline is strictly implemented.”
Magsasaka Partylist Representative Argel Cabatbat also filed a similar resolution in support of the coconut farmers
“Registration is an important step as only registered coconut farmers will qualify from the programs under the law. The government says there are 2.5 million coconut farmers based on the last registration,” the group said.
Danny Carranza, convenor of Bantay Cocolevy Alliance, believed “there are at least 3.5 million coconut farmers that need to be registered considering that children of coconut farmers, farmworkers and others who work on coconut farms are qualified.”
The group also lamented some of the hurdles faced by the coconut farmers during the registration.
“Among these are the limited personnel of the PCA, the form written in English which made it difficult for many farmers to fill-up, red-tagging that prohibited volunteer farmers from conducting fieldwork in many areas, and the lack of information among stakeholders especially barangay officials on the registration issue,” the group said.
“We will continue to be vigilant by closely monitoring the implementation of RA 11524. in this registration process, we are making sure that only farmers with 5 hectares and below are qualified under the law,” it added.
Bantay Cocolevy Alliance maintained that their presence in over 20 coconut farming provinces across the country “will ensure that we can make the government more transparent and accountable in the implementation of the law.”
Meanwhile, PCA said at least 51 percent of the 2.5 million farmers in the existing registry were already updated.
“Moreover, there are 315,104 new farmer-registrants or those farmers who, for a long time, have not been in touch with the PCA and are now taking this opportunity to avail of government support,” PCA said in a statement.
The coronavirus pandemic also brought challenges to the agency’s ongoing registration and validation.
However, PCA vowed “to exert all efforts to ensure that all eligible coconut farm-owners, tenants, and workers will be registered in the National Coconut Farmers Registry System.” (SunStar Philippines)