We, the undersigned leaders and members of the Confederation of Coconut Farmers Organizations of the Philippines (CCFOP-CONFED), Inc., a unified group of the three national federations of coconut farmers’ organizations, namely, first the Philippine Association {formerly National Federation) of Small Coconut Farmers Organizations (PASCFO), secondly the Pambansang Koalisyon ng mga Samahang Magsasaka at Manggagawa sa Niyugan (PKSMMN) and thirdly the Philippine Coconut Producers Federation (COCOFED), hereby manifest our strong opposition to the intended merger of the Cocobank (UCPB) with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).
We remind the government and its Finance Department (DOF) of the following with respect to the government-for-farmers shares and assets in UCPB, for that’s what they are in essence according to Court Doctrine, viz. they are shares and assets trust-owned by the government and beneficially owned by all the coconut farmers for the development and strengthening of what the Court recognized to be a strategic pillar of our national economy, the coconut industry:
1. The Merging of the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) is no longer adhered to and is even contrary to the original intent of the law on the creation of the UCPB to address the credit needs of coconut farmers;
2. The Conversion of the Twelve-Billion-Peso (12,000,0000,000.00) Capital Note of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) with UCPB into “Special Preferred Shares” enjoying voting rights is a clear violation of the Supreme Court Decision on the coco levy funds and assets and is patently immoral, illegal, unconstitutional, and anti-farmer;
3. As the legitimate and heretofore the only judicially (Supreme Court) recognized confederation of coconut farmers originally owning about 1.1 billion shares in UCPB that came from out of the coco levy fund collections, it is our firm belief that we have the right of first refusal and the right to be consulted in this matter of the conversion of the 12-billion-peso capital note of PDIC into a special preferred share; we the coconut farmers should be consulted and be part of this major decision done by the DOF and PDIC – a consultation which never took place despite our attempt to be heard for the benefit of the coconut farmers and the development of the coconut industry as enshrined in the Supreme Court ruling.
4. A bill still pending with both houses of Congress creating a coconut farmers’ trust fund out of the coco levy funds and assets expressly includes UCPB among others in the whole trust entity; hence, any action of government regarding this proposed merger can only be interpreted as an act to undermine the real present intent of the legislature in the latter’s desire to implement court doctrine regarding the coco levy funds and assets that took some decades to resolve.
5. The original purpose of the LBP as stated in the 1963 R.A. 3844 was for the government to provide funds to meet the credit needs of land reform beneficiaries. The LBP funds were to come directly from the general vault of funds held by the government in absolute ownership.
6. By contrast, the original purpose of the Cocobank as stated in the 1975 P.D. 755 was narrowed down to allowing coconut farmers to have a bank of their own for their own credit requirements and the development of their industry from out of special (coco levy) funds extracted from them supposedly for their own benefit. The Cocobank funds were not to come from the general funds of the government. They did not. And they are not to be held by the government in absolute ownership but as a public trust for a purpose. Thus, it would be highly immoral to allow or cause by executive fiat the devouring of a bank like UCPB that has its own special purpose and original farmer funding by a bigger bank like LBP whose purpose is wider and more general and whose original funding came from the general vault of government funds. While the LBP becomes bigger and more prosperous with its eating up of UCPB, the latter – fruit of the blood, sweat and tears of millions of coconut farmers including both still living and those who perished in the night – will be chewed up, masticated and digested into oblivion and nothingness by the bigger whale of an LBP, to the great distress and disadvantage of the coconut farmers and the rule of law.
7. We want the government to be consistent. At the beginning of this administration, the LBP-DBP merger that had already been approved by former President BS Aquino III was stopped by Secretary of Finance Dominguez (SOF) for the reason that the two banks served different functions although they were both government-owned and financed. Cocobank (UCPB) and LBP also serve different functions (wider land reform and narrower coconut industry) and, more importantly, are differently owned. But SOF is Chairman of the LBP and would it not be nice if two banks are merged and the surviving entity between the two is Land Bank, maybe even catapulting it to the position of No.2 or No.1 bank in the country?
All the coconut farmers of this country including the thousands of organizations, associations, cooperatives and unions brought together as one by our national confederation (CONFED), one judicially recognized by the Supreme Court and commended for representing the otherwise voiceless and silenced majority of tillers, reiterate their opposition to this planned merger and the sure loss and destruction of the bank that they have struggled so hard to make truly theirs in accordance with law and the moral imperative arising from the unjust and incredibly onerous special taxation that they and their forebears had to go through in years past.
In light of all these considerations, we categorically oppose the planned merger. The coconut farmers of this country will not rest until they recover as their own the bank that more than symbolizes their sacrifices and their labors. The Cocobank must be made to serve the benefit of the coconut farmers and the development of the coconut industry.
Done and signed this 30th day of October 2020.
Ka Charlie Avila
CONFED Executive Director and Spokesperson