Only 175,000 farmers will receive direct cash from coco levy fund

Out of the 3.5 million coconut farmers that were wrongly taxed during Marcos dictatorship, only 5 percent or 175,000 of them may receive direct cash from the controversial R 75billion coconut levy fund.

Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Administrator Billy Andal said yesterday that bulk of the coco levy fund will be distributed as bundled fund for several coconut farmers associations and processors, while only a few farmers will receive cash from it.

The Coco Levy Fund Scam was a controversy from 1973 to 1982 involving the former President Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.

During the Marcos dictatorship, the government taxed coconut farmers, promising them the development of the coconut industry and a share of the investments to be made using the funds. Over a nine-year period, the coco levy fund was collected by PCA from millions of coconut farmers through various Presidential Decrees.

A levy of R20 to R76 was automatically deducted from the farmer for every 100 kilogram of copra of the first sale.

Later on, funds earned from this scheme were used for Marcos and his cronies' personal profit particularly in the purchase of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and majority stake in San Miguel Corporation (SMC), to name a few.

As of now, the present administration is doing all the "legal works" to fast-track the release of the controversial coco levy fund so that it could be finally distributed back to the farmers.

However, Andal said that only less than five percent of all the farmers that were actually taxed during the dictatorship may directly get something out of the disputed funds.

This, as most of them already lost the proof of payment (or receipt) that they indeed paid excessive taxes that time.

"According to PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority), there are 3.5 million farmers. But we are reaching the end of the registry period (set by the government for coconut farmers) and we are estimating only 1.9 million registered farmers by February," Andal said in an interview on Thursday.

"And of this 1.9 million, maybe only or less than five percent has a receipt or any proof (that they contributed to the fund)," he added.

Andal also said the release of the coconut levy fund may finally happen within the first six months of this year as Confederation of Coconut farmer’s Organizations of the Philippines (CONFED) decided to withdraw its petition against the utilization of the controversial fund.

Andal said that CONFED will withdraw its petition before the Supreme Court (SC) — which had resulted to the imposition of Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on the distribution of highly disputed funds — next week.

To recall, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the TRO is the only legal bottleneck preventing the administration to distribute the coco levy funds.

The CONFED is the unified group of coconut farmer’s organizations nationwide that includes the Philippine Association (formerly National Federation) of Small Coconut Farmer’s Organizations (PASCFO), the Pambansang Koalisyon ng mga Samahang Magsasaka at Manggagawa sa Niyugan (PKSMMN), the Coconut Producer’s Federation (COCOFED) and their many allied farmers’ organizations representing all together more than ninety-five percent of the organized coconut farmers sector in our country.