Reelectionist Senator Cynthia Villar has vowed to push again the enactment of a measure that would allow the much-awaited distribution of the P100-billion coco levy fund to coconut farmers.
Villar made the promise after President Duterte vetoed the proposed law seeking the creation of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund, which she sponsored in Senate. Duterte, in his veto message, said the enrolled bill was unconstitutional.
The senator, in a recent visit to Laguna, admitted being saddened by Duterte’s rejection of her pet bill, but said she trusts the Chief Executive’s decision.
If reelected as senator in the May 13, midterm polls, Villar said she will refile the bill in the 18th Congress and improve it.
“Huwag po kayong malungkot (Do not be discouraged). Makakaasa ang mga coconut farmers na (Coconut farmers can expect that) as soon as I go back to Congress in July, we will refile the bill,” Villar, who chaiRthe Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, said in her speech.
“Sisiguraduhin na natin na papasa ito at pipirmahan ng President. Made-delay lang ng one year but we will do it,” she promised.
The vetoed measure sought to establish the coconut industry trust fund to finally distribute the P105 billion coco levy collected from farmers during the Marcos administration.
Under the Congress-approved bill, P5 billion would be distributed per year for the next 25 years for programs that would benefit the coconut farmers and their beneficiaries, such as scholarship, health and medical programs, empowerment of coconut farmers organization and their cooperatives and farm improvement and shared facilities program to encourage self-sufficiency.
It also sought to allocate an annual P10-billion budget to the PCA for programs aimed at developing the coconut industry such as infrastructure, planting, replanting and establishment of nurseries, intercropping, shared facilities, research and development, disease control, treatment and eradication, fertilization, new products and derivatives of coconut oil products and credit through LandBank and Development Bank of the Philippines.
Duterte, earlier, had also rejected bill seeking to strengthen the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) by increasing the farmer-members of the PCA Board.
The said measure was supposed to complement the coco levy bill, since the PCA would be mandated to manage and distribute the coco levy fund to develop the country’s coconut industry.
The twin bills, he said, were both “lacking in vital safeguards to avoid the repetition of painful mistakes committed in the past.”
Villar said she is willing to work with Duterte to improve the vetoed proposals.
She said the bills should be prioritized since “coconut farmers, together with rice farmers, make up 90 percent of the farmers in the Philippines.” (Vanne Elaine Terrazola)
