By Camille A. Aguinaldo

THE SENATE on Monday approved on third and final reading the bill creating the coconut industry trust fund, which would allow farmers to directly benefit from coco levy funds collected by the government during Ferdinand E. Marcos’s regime.

Senate Bill No. 1233 or the proposed Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Act was approved with 19 affirmative votes, one negative vote by Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros-Baraquel and no abstention.

The coconut levy trust fund bill seeks to convert the coconut levy assets amounting between P80 billion and P100 billion into a trust fund for farmers and the coconut industry.

It was co-authored by Senators Cynthia A. Villar, Ralph G. Recto, Francis N. Pangilinan, Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV and Hontiveros. It was identified by the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) as among the priority bills of Congress.

The bill was originally sponsored and authored by Mr. Pangilinan, who said he voted for the measure’s approval with reservation given the major amendments introduced during the second reading.

The proposed measure adopted the amendment introduced by Mr. Recto, which would reconstitute the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to reflect the proposed membership of the Trust Committee tasked to manage the coconut levy trust fund.

Membership in the PCA Board would be amended to include six representatives from the coconut farmers to be appointed by the President.

The bill initially called for the creation of a Trust Fund Committee composed of five government officials and six farmer representatives. This was later scrapped during the second reading.

“Despite all of these, I am still confident and hopeful, that this august chamber, and its representatives as a Senate Panel to the Bicameral Conference on the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Bills, will see and appreciate the aspirations of our coconut farmers,” Mr. Pangilinan said.

According to the bill, the trust fund would be utilized for coconut farm improvements, to encourage self-sufficiency among farmers, programs for shared facilities, scholarship programs and initiatives for the empowerment of coconut farmers’ organizations and their cooperatives.

The trust fund would also be appropriated through the General Appropriations Act, which was also contrary to the original proposal for “an off-budget source of funds for programs and projects identified in the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan.”

“The negative consequences of such a process is that, which I continue to hope would not happen, the funds will be appropriated for programs and projects that may not be identified in the Coconut Farmers and Industry Plan,” Mr. Pangilinan said.

For her part, Ms. Villar said the bill would require “the investment of the trust fund only in Philippine government securities to ensure the safety of the fund and for assured reasons.”

“We are confident that with safeguards and reforms in place, we can finally see the day when poverty incidence is no longer the highest among our coconut farms,” she said.

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