New PCA chief, board to handle P100-B Coco Levy Fund

The new administrator of the Philippine Coconut Administration (PCA), outgoing Philippine Air Force commander Lieutenant General Galileo Kintanar Jr. and a completely new board will be tasked to oversee the handling and use of the P100billion Coconut Levy Fund. Under the newly passed Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Act, or the Coco Levy Act, the government will not release the coco levy funds directly to farmers. The money will instead go to PCA, which will have a "reconstituted" set of board, whose main job is to utilize the funds for the development of the coconut sector.

The coco levy funds were the money that the Marcos administration collected from coconut farmers by imposing a levy for every kilo of copra.

Almost three years after promising the release of the funds, Duterte is finally expected to sign the Coco Levy Act soon after having been ratified by the bicameral conference committee in the earlier part of at the earlier part of this month.

Duterte has given Kintanar the power to choose his own people to help him in running the PCA.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the current PCA board already submitted their courtesy resignation to the Office of the President.

Right now, the current PCA Board is composed of six members including PCA Administrator Romulo de la Rosa, and members Alan Tanjuakio, Manuel Serra Jr., Conrado Capa, and Roque Quimpan.

For a total of 15 seats, the new PCA board would be composed of representatives from eight government agencies including PCA, the Department of Agriculture, Department of Finance, Department of Budget and Management, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Trade and Industry, Landbank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines.

There will also be six farmer representatives in the PCA board, including two each from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao; and another representative from the private sector.

Aside from the reconstitution of PCA Board, the government also intends to stretch the release of the coconut levy fund up to 25 years. Under the law, the funds will be released to PCA at billion annually until it runs out.

Duterte said if Kintanar can fly a plane, it would be easy for him to look after the funds going in and out of the agency.

“Palagay ko naman ‘yang eroplano ‘yan laki-laki ng yawa na ‘yan, mahirap ‘yan. Ito, ano laman ng ledger pati journal (I think flying a big aircraft is difficult. This, it’s just ledgers and journals), all you have to do is just keep an eye, and just at the end of the day, kwentahin mo lang ‘yan (compute), and look at the papers and see to it that the Filipino is protected,” he said in an earlier report.

Kintanar is the latest military man that Duterte appointed to a government position. In October, Duterte named retiring army chief Lieutenant General Rolando Bautista as the new Secretary of Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), following the appointment of retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff General Rey Leonardo Guerrero as the new Bureau of Customs (BoC) chief.

It was also in May this year when he named former AFP chief Roy Cimatu as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary.

Dela Rosa said in an earlier report that the PCA is not yet geared to handle the coco levy fund and that the agency must be massively reorganized first.

He said the problem is that PCA, like any other government agency, lacks manpower and hurrying to get more people is not going to be easy.

To recall, PCA has to reduce the number of its employees by half in 2013 because of a certain rationalization plan. Right now, PCA is beefing up its human resource development program.

The proposed measure provides for the utilization of the fund as follows: 30 percent for the development of shared facilities program; 15 percent for scholarship program; 15 percent for the epowerment of coconut farmer organizations and their cooperatives; 30 percent to encourage self-sufficiency among farms; and 10 percent for provision of health and medical assistance for farmers.