The Senate has started plenary discussions on the refiled bill seeking to create the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund.
Sen. Cynthia Villar sponsored Senate Bill No. 1396 last Wednesday, in another attempt to pass a measure that will distribute the P105-billion coco levy imposed on farmers under the Marcos administration.
The Congress had approved a coco levy bill, but President Duterte vetoed it and a twin bill last year for supposedly being “violative of the Constitution and is lacking in vital safeguards.”
“More than five months after vetoing the coconut levy trust fund bill, President Rodrigo Duterte again called for its passage into law in his 2019 State-of-the-Nation Address. He reiterated his commitment to uplift the lives of coconut farmers who are among the country’s poorest of the poor,” the chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food said in her sponsorship speech.
“The bill is now being refiled with some modifications, taking into consideration the inputs being suggested by the executive branch of government so it will not be vetoed for the sake of the coconut farmers,” she added.
SB No. 1396 was a consolidation of the bills filed by Senators Francis Pangilinan, Ralph Recto, Imee Marcos, and Villar.
Under the bill, the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund will be managed and disbursed in accordance with the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan which will be formulated and implemented by the Philippine Coconut Authority.
The plan, Villar explained, shall set how the coconut industry will be rehabilitated in the next 99 years, the suggested life-span of the trust fund, and include programs, activities, or actions aimed at increasing farm productivity and incomes of coconut farmers and coconut-based enterprises.
“We can amend (the proposed life span) if the target benefits to the coconut farmers have been reached,” she said.
The bill also aimed to “strengthen” the PCA by increasing the membership of government department secretaries and farmers’ representatives in the PCA Board. (Vanne Terrazola)
