SEN. Cynthia Villar has assured coconut farmers that her Senate committee on agriculture will pass the bill managing the disposition of the P100 billion coco-levy fund in the first quarter of 2015.
“We are scheduling another committee hearing next month and we will submit the bill for plenary deliberation in January,” Villar said.
Villar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, gave the assurance before the so-called KM71 coconut farmers who marched from Davao City to Manila to push for the establishment of the coco-levy trust fund.
On Wednesday the group will march to Malacañang to seek a dialogue with President Aquino.
Villar said a law that will govern the management of the fund will better serve the interest of the more than 3.5 million coconut farmers in the country than an executive order which could be changed in the event of a change in leadership.
“The coconut farmers who earn only P50 a day are the poorest in our country. The coco-levy funds, as decided by the Supreme Court, should be spent to improve their condition,” she said.
Villar authored Senate Bill 2126, or the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Act, which seeks to establish a trust fund that will pay for the implementation of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan.
The bill mandates the creation of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Fund, a trust fund which will be perpetually maintained for the development of the coconut industry for the ultimate benefit of coconut farmers and farm workers. It will be used to fund the implementation of programs and projects identified in the plan.
Under the bill, the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan will be prepared for the development and rehabilitation of the coconut industry. It will include, among others, a national program for coconut productivity, replanting, rehabilitation, scientific and medical research, integrated downstream processing, and market promotion.
It will also include local programs that directly benefit small coconut farmers and farm workers, such as medical and health and life-insurance services, educational scholarships for deserving students coming from families of coconut farmers, or beneficiaries of the coconut-levy funds.