Agriculture Secretary William Dar expects President Rodrigo R. Duterte to give the go-signal for the disposal of the billions worth of Marcos-era coco levy assets before his term ends this month.
In Wednesday’s episode of Gising Na!, an online show of the Daily Tribune, Dar said Duterte reviewed the coconut farmers and industry development plan.
The submission of the plan was part of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Republic Act (RA) 11524 or the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund signed into law by Duterte last year.
“We had a cabinet meeting the other night, and the President has seen the coconut farmers and industry development plan, which is the last part of the process for the coconut levy act before it can be implemented,” Dar said.
“The president, hopefully, will sign that immediately. Once we receive that, there is big funding coming from the coconut levy, and the various components of this are already identified in the law,” Dar added.
Dar said that the Department of Agriculture (DA) has been consulting with “various implementing agencies” to source additional budgets to boost the productivity level of the coconut industry.
“The coconut industry only contributes 4 percent to the gross value added in agriculture, which means it’s a pity the coconut industry is not properly supported — meaning we have more than 3 million coconut farmers in poverty,” he said.
Last week, Department of Finance (DoF) Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III ordered an expedited release of the coco levy assets, which according to a recent report of the Commission on Audit (CoA), was worth P111.3 billion.
The DoF said the CoA report was smaller than the Presidential Commission on Good Government’s (PCGG) estimate of P113.9 billion as of end-2020. The CoA said the PCGG’s estimate was overstated by P2.6 billion.
“Please go over this report and parse it, and to go through this with a fine-tooth comb, and report to the committee as soon as possible of what is the real status of the assets, what can be disposed, what cannot be disposed of, what’s tied up in court, and other related matters,” Dominguez told DoF Undersecretary Antonette Tionko in a meeting last 4 May.
During the same meeting, the DoF said Dominguez also asked for the resumption of “discussions on the legal options available to speed up the disposal of several coco levy assets so that their proceeds can be used for the benefit of the country’s coconut farmers.”
The trust fund management committee chaired by Dominguez manages the utilization of the coconut farmers and industry trust fund formed under RA 11524.
RA 11524 had been regarded as a landmark law to pave the way for efficient use of the coco levy fund and usher in a reform in the coconut sector.
Source: https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2022/06/02/coco-levy-assets-disposal-urged/
