By Marvyn N. Benaning / Correspondent
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Coco Levy Fund Ibalik sa Amin (Claim) have hailed the Supreme Court (SC) for stopping the Aquino administration from disbursing the P73-billion proceeds of the coconut-levy fund.
KMP and Claim also urged lawmakers to freeze deliberations on proposals that would effectively privatize the funds collected from coconut farmers during the darkest years of the Marcos dictatorship.
“While the High Court’s order temporarily stopped Aquino’s scheme to once again plunder the coco-levy funds, small coconut farmers should not let their guards down. Aquino’s twin coco-levy executive orders are designed for plunder,” KMP Chairman Rafael Mariano said.
For his part Claim National Spokesman Nestor Villanueva called on Congress to also stop the progress of coco-levy privatization bills.
“We demand Congress to halt the proceedings of all pending bills seeking to privatize our money and assets,” Villanueva stressed.
Villanueva cited Executive Orders (EO) 179 and 180 copycat bills, particularly Senate Bill 2675, authored by Sen. Cynthia Villar, are pending in the Senate plenary.
A similar House bill was approved on June 10 by the House Committee on Agriculture.
“We will continue to oppose these bills that are intended to deprive and deny small coconut farmers of our
legitimate claim over the coco-levy fund and assets,” he warned.
Villanueva maintained that “EOs 179 and 180 would diminish small coconut farmers’ legitimate claim and, on the other hand, strengthen state control over the funds by declaring that all coco-levy funds belong to the government which did not contribute a single cent to the funds.”
“Aquino deceived, deprived and denied small coconut farmers of their just and legitimate claim over hundreds of billions of pesos worth of coco-levy fund and assets,” the coconut farmer-leader said.
The KMP and Claim insisted that “the oil mills, the United Coconut Planters Bank and the San Miguel Corp. shares are owned by small coconut farmers” and that “Aquino has no legal and moral authority to sell these coco-levy funded corporations and assets.”