Budget disbursement under coco levy fund may start in September

If things go well, the actual budget disbursement of the coco levy fund may finally happen in September, an end to a plea that seems to have taken forever.

Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) administrator Romulo de la Rosa said if the coconut levy trust fund bill will be passed on third reading this month, it will at least take six months before the actual fund disbursement will happen.

This is almost two years since President Rodrigo Duterte promised to release the controversial fund.

It was just last week when the Senate approved on second reading the coconut levy trust fund bill.

The approved version leaves the disbursement of the 176-billlion coco levy fund to PCA board, which shall be expanded to 11 members, six of which shall be occupied by farmers.

This was faced with a lot of criticism, with Kilusan para sa Ugnayan ng mga Samahang Magniniyog saying the decision is against the farmers’ 40-year appeal to get their money back.

Former Senator Wigberto Tañada, on his part, said the amendments were unacceptable, adding that the measure has "lost its soul" which is supposed to prioritize farmers over bureaucracy, an earlier report showed.

In his defense, Romulo said the PCA did not lobby for the Senate to assign the fund's disbursement to PCA.

"No, we did not lobby to Senator Recto," de la Rosa said in a text message. "From what I was told, the Senate did not want to create new bureaucracy".

In September last year, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill 5745, which seeks the creation of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Trust Fund.

The version of the senate, Senate Bill 1233, almost provides the same framework as the House version.

Under both versions, a fund trustee, the Trust Fund Committee, will supposedly be formed — of which six of its eleven members, or a majority, are either from coconut farmers groups or their representatives.

Chaired by the Secretary of Finance, and co-chaired by the Secretary of Agriculture, the committee will decide on how to invest the fund. PCA will also be part of the committee.

This completely changed when the Senate decided to return the fund to PCA.

Romulo said that as of now, there are seven seats to PCA board and if ever, it's President Rodrigo Duterte who will get to choose who among farmer leaders will sit in the board once the coco levy fund is finally released.

Okay Sir. Are you optimistic that the coco levy fund disbursement can finally happen this year?

"It looks possible [that the fund will finally happen this year]. However, it will all rest on the bicameral after Senate passes it on third reading next week," Romulo said.

If the Senate moves to approve the bill on third reading, the PCA will then have to lead the creation of “Coconut Industry Roadmap".

The amended version also increased the fund, not only from the coco levy, but also with the PCA budget.

“The original proposal was for a Coconut Industry Development Fund that will only use interest income from the coco levy trust. This will amount to P2 billion to P2.5 billion a year. But why use only the coco levy fund when we have a counterpart fund from the government? Thus, the Senate version adds a guaranteed budgetary support of 110 billion to the PCA on top of trust income,” Recto said in an earlier report.

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

During the Marcos dictatorship, the government overly taxed coconut farmers — promising them the development of the coconut industry and a share of the investments to be made using the funds.

A levy of 120 to 176 was automatically deducted from the farmer for every 100 kilogram of copra of the first sale, which went on for nine years.

Funds earned from this scheme were later on used by Marcos and his cronies for their personal interest, buying stakes at United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and San Miguel Corporation (SMC), to name a few.

The controversial fund was eventually returned to the national government treasury in full but a law outlining how it should be spent is needed.