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Atty. Joey Lina I would like to share the insights of former Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor, chairman of the Federation of Free Farmers, about the predicament of the nation’s coconut farmers who remain poor despite the Coco Levy Fund worth billions of pesos that’s supposed to help them. In an article titled “Can UCPB, Land Bank and Coco Levy Fund meet credit needs of Coconut Farmers?” which Montemayor co-wrote with Edgardo C. Amistad, former president of the UCPB-CIIF Finance and Development Corporation, answers can be found to questions troubling the coconut industry. Fore...

Published December 19, 2020, 5:00 AM Amid growing opposition against the proposed Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund (Coco Levy Act), which will pave the way for the release of the P100-billion coco levy fund, Agriculture Secretary William Dar has made an appeal to coconut farmers to give the law a chance. Agriculture Secretary William Dar (Photo credit: https://www.da.gov.ph/) This was Dar’s reaction to coconut farmers’ call for President Rodrigo Duterte to veto the proposed Coco Levy Act if ever it makes it through the bicameral process without addressing the concerns of the far...

Published December 17, 2020, 6:00 AM On the anticipated release of the P100-billion coco levy fund, another veto is coconut farmers’ last hope after the House version of Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund (Coco Levy Act) was passed on third and final reading and turned out to be “worse than the Senate version of the law”.   That, if President Rodrigo Duterte will not intervene before the law gets through the bicameral, where both houses of Congress will consolidate two versions of Coco Levy Act.   (MB FILE, Keith Bacongco) “I called the staff of Congressman Mark Enverga [Quezon...

Published December 14, 2020, 7:12 PM With 221 members voting in the affirmative, the House of Representatives on Monday approved on third and final reading the bill declaring the coconut levy assets as a trust fund and providing for its management and utilization that will ensure benefits for coconut farmers and workers. MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO The six members of the Makabayan bloc voted against House Bill 8136 as they pointed out that the legislative measure will only further deny the farmers and coconut plantation workers access to the funds collected during the martial law years. Speake...

Published December 14, 2020, 5:00 AM            Coconut farmers are questioning some provisions of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act (Coco Levy Act) such as the annual allocation of portions of the P100-billion coco levy fund to several government agencies, some of which have had no participation in coconut industry development at all.            In a press briefing, Joey Faustino, leader of the Coconut Industry Reform Movement, said coconut farmers are appealing to junk the Senate Bill (SB) 1396 or the Coco Levy Act in fear that they may totally lose the cha...