TW3
TW3 (that was the week that was) saw:
- Tubig baha (massive flooding) in Metro Manila,
- Buhos dugo (blood flow) in Maguindanao, and
- The penultimate coconut farmers’ consultation – the seventh regional before the upcoming national – unanimously insisting on the legislation of a Philippine Coconut Farmers’ Foundation.
In Manila the debates and recriminations did not slow down the heavy rains that fell from the skies surprisingly without the usual typhoon ushers. Critics and administration had their say but the masses of people, affected or not, kept their counsel.
The critics asked: Couldn’t the P1.9B flood control projects axed by Pnoy have saved Metro Manila from this awesome flooding?
Bitterly they remarked: “Cory Aquino vindictively cancelled the Sucat- Paranaque Spillway project of the Marcos administration. That project was the second major element in the Metro Manila Flood Control Master Plan, which had in view the running off of flood waters from Laguna de Bay, the region’s natural catch basin into the Manila Bay.
“The Sucat Paranaque Spillway, and the Manggahan Floodways were the major water arteries to move floodwaters from Laguna Bay to Manila Bay, using pumping stations to move freshwater to salt water Manila Bay during low tide.
“Only the Manggahan Floodway project was completed at the time of Marcos’ ouster, with the critical Sucat-Paranaque Spillway cancelled by Cory. Thus, freshwater Laguna de Bay, which is now heavily silted, and undredged due to BSA’s cancellation of the Belgian contract, overflows with floodwater, which the Manggahan Floodway and other pumping stations cannot carry out to Manila Bay.” Indeed, in every crisis there is never any lack of experts.
On the other hand, however, the administration defended itself by unveiling its own “master plan for effective and comprehensive flood management in the region up to 2035. The plan calls for at least P351.72 billion in infrastructure spending…” a plan.
And the talk went on of “ring-road dikes along Laguna de Bay, embankments and catch basins in the Marikina River watershed and an 8-kilometer dike and pumping station in the Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela) area.” But the administration’s inaction seemed so loud that the people could not hear what it was saying – neither its announced plans nor its lame apologies and protestations.
Palafox
Environmental planning expert Architect Felino “Jun” Palafox of the Lay Society of St. Arnold Janssen, for his part, remained optimistic that Metro Manila will remain livable as long as the government gets “more serious with our urban planning and [be able] to adapt to the conditions we have.”
According to Palafox, he will, for the third time, submit to the government his 83 recommendations, outlining “honest-to-goodness” measures that will not only make the cities less vulnerable to disasters like typhoons, flooding and earthquakes, but will also improve the sustainability of roads, open spaces, transport, utilities and even buildings. The second time the same documents were forwarded to the government was when President Aquino had just assumed office in 2010.
Secondly, while the capital was besieged by rising floodwater, the South was witnessing blood flow – serious fighting between government forces and Islamic secessionists.
During the Ramos period, the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) penned a peace pact.
But the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which had turned out to be the bigger, more militant and in many ways more significant group, was not even recognized as existent then, becoming clearer, however, in the subsequent years that it was all along the real secessionist threat. Last week, at last, this group initialed a peace document in Malaysia with the Philippine government.
This is when, almost expectedly, another group manifested armed strength that could be quite a threat to peace in the area. They called themselves the BIFF or Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. Well, they got noted all right – as a breakaway group from the MILF. And last week they showed how they could quite easily shut down the main highway between General Santos City and Cotabato City, and inflict damage, physical and moral, on the government forces that knew that the MILF was quite present and merely looking on, practicing what we may call “spectrum politics” – i.e. covering the whole spectrum of tactics from violent to nonviolent.
One had to ask: aren’t these divided groups one after all, one in the families where they come from; one in the direction of real autonomy which they do not have yet but want to attain through both smart diplomacy and skillful war tactics; one in their faith that their holy struggle will ultimately help to transform life. When one divides into two, isn’t it because the two can easily combine into one?
Thirdly, in the week that was, in Zamboanga City, the seventh coconut farmers regional consultation on the coco levy Supreme Court decision sang in substantial tune with the rest of the nation’s coconut farmers. By the end of this month representatives of all these regional consultations will gather together in a national congress in Manila to firm up their demand for a legislated foundation to handle the utilization of the controversial funds.
Why do the three biggest national coconut farmers’ organizations, namely, the Philippine Association of Small Coconut Farmers Organizations (PASCFO), the Philippine Coconut Producers Federation,
Inc (COCOFED), and the Pambansang Koalisyon ng mga Samahang Magsasaka at Manggagawa sa Niyugan (PKSMMN) insist on having a law passed creating the Coconut Industry Trust Fund and a Philippine Coconut Farmers’ Foundation to manage this Fund?
A Foundation to Manage a Trust Fund
The Supreme Court ruled in COCOFED, Et. A1, vs. Republic of the Philippines, GR # 177857-58 that the coco levy funds and assets which consists primarily of the 753,848,312 San Miguel Corporation (SMC) shares and their accumulated dividends are owned by the government in trust for the coconut farmers.
It also ruled that said coco levy funds and assets are to be used exclusively for the benefit of all the coconut farmers and the development of the coconut industry.
The funds are therefore public trust funds – with government as trustee for the beneficial owners who are the coconut farmers. There is dual ownership here: by government because a levy is a tax and must result in funds that are public in character, and by the farmers for whose benefit and from whom government levied the tax in the first place and in a manner that made the Filipino coconut farmer the most heavily taxed citizen in all Philippine history, barring none.
However, clear as the Supreme Court decision is on the dual ownership of the levy funds, it does not provide for an administrative mechanism to ensure that the funds are managed prudently and properly as intended by law. The decision does not provide guidelines for the management and use of the coco levy funds for the benefit of the coconut industry and the coconut farmers.
This is a dangerous situation for the coconut farmers who bore the burden of the coconut levy.
In fact other sectors have started posturing to get their hands on the coconut levy funds. Worse, these “other sectors” are not even connected to the coconut industry, and the proposed use of the funds is not for the benefit of the coconut industry and the coconut fanners.
Hence, the big three (national coconut farmers’ organizations) said there is a great need to constitute the coconut levy funds and assets into a Coconut Industry Trust Fund (CITF) by law and provide the administrative structure, also by law, that will manage the trust funds and ensure that its use will benefit the coconut industry and the coconut farmers. That structure is proposed to be a Foundation to be called the Philippine Coconut Farmers’ Foundation (PCFF).
Purposes and Uses of the Fund
In general the fund should be used for the following ten purposes:
1) Promote the steady, accelerated and orderly development and vertical integration of the coconut industry; right now we have a coconut anarchy and no coconut industry;
2) Develop and establish coconut based farming systems including but not limited to the establishment of model coconut farms; each hectare of coconut land has normally about 0.8 hectare more to spare for high value synergistic intercrops which must be utilized;
3) Hasten and advance industrialization in the coconut industry and the
diversification and proper utilization of coconut products and by products; we should no longer be hang up on copra, an intermediate non-product, but we should rather have centers for both food and nonfood uses of the coconut’s thousand in high demand products and byproducts;
4) Promote the effective utilization and marketing of coconut products and byproducts in the domestic and foreign markets and preserve the competitiveness and reliability of the country as a major producer and supplier of these products;
5) Increase production by expanding the planting and replanting program of coconut trees in strategic areas identified as having the most potential;
6) Conduct scientific researches and investigations in all areas pertaining to agricultural, industrial, marketing and socio-economic aspect of the coconut industry and encourage the participation of small farm holders in research and technology;
7) Encourage and promote the organization of coconut farmers cooperatives, associations, and organizations and provide them grants, credit and financing schemes;
8) Generate and disseminate information and communication to farmers, producers and other sectors to ensure the appreciation and adoption of appropriate technology and practices, inventions, as well as the proper awareness and correct understanding of issues and development in the coconut industry;
9) Finance the developmental/operating expenses of legitimate/recognized coconut farmer organizations including projects such as scholarships for the benefit of deserving children of the coconut fanners and the establishment of coconut seedling nurseries and the farmers planting/replanting program;
10) Finance social services for the coconut farmers for their mutual assistance, protection and relief in the form of social benefits, such as life, medical, and accident insurance coverage of the coconut farmers.
Who would be the Members/ Beneficiaries of the Foundation (PCFF)?
For purposes of determining the respective identities and addresses of coconut farmers who will be eligible to become members of the PCFF, a ground survey of coconut farmers (Ground Survey) under the supervision of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) through its Coconut Development Officers who are stationed in all municipalities of the coconut regions of the country shall be conducted and completed within two (2) years after the appointment of the first Board of Trustees of the Foundation.
Any coconut farmer may apply as a Coconut Farmer Member Beneficiary of the PCFF. A coconut farmer is a natural person who:
1 Owns and tills the coconut farm by himself and/or with the assistance of members of his family, or farm laborers;
2 Owns the coconut farm but does not till it by himself but with the assistance of farm laborers;
3. Is a lessee, usufructuary, who tills the coconut farm by himself and/or with the assistance of the farm laborers;
4. Is a mortgagee, who tills the coconut farm by himself and/or with the assistance of the farm laborers;
5 Harvests and processes the coconut product and is compensated in the form of the produce which he sells as his own; or
6. Works in the coconut farm and is compensated either in cash or in kind.
But how will the Trust Fund be created?
By law there shall be created a trust fund to be known as the Coconut Industry Trust Fund (CITF) from the funds and assets of the so-called coconut levy funds consisting of the753,848,312 CIIF Preferred SMC shares and their accumulated dividends; the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB); the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) Oil Mills; the 14 Holding Corporations; the United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corporation (COCOLIFE); and all their respective assets, subsidiaries and affiliates to the extent that the Supreme Court has ruled or may rule in other cases to be owned by the government in trust for the coconut industry and the coconut farmers, or their cash equivalent if redeemed or sold.
All of this together could be in the conservative ballpark figure of at least more than two hundred billion pesos. By law, they shall be recognized and declared anew as special trust funds with the government as trustee for the beneficial owners who are the coconut farmers. The CITF shall not form part of the general fund of the government and shall be used only as provided by law.
How will the Foundation be created?
Again by law, there shall be created under the office of the President the Philippine Coconut Farmers’ Foundation (PCFF), which shall manage, administer, utilize or dispose certain assets of the Coconut Industry Trust Fund (CITF). It shall be organized by the appointment of its 15-man Board of Trustees within 6 months from the effectivity of the proposed R.A.
Who will compose this 15-person Board? The corporate powers of the PCFF shall be vested in a Board of Trustees to be appointed by the President of the Philippines consisting of fifteen (15) trustees eight (8) of whom shall represent government sector provided that the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Administrator shall be a Trustee, and seven (7) of whom shall come from the coconut industry sector provided that the three largest nationwide coconut fanners organizations, the Philippine Coconut Producers Federation,Inc (COCOFED), the Philippine Association of Small Coconut Farmers Organizations (PASCFO) and the Pambansang Koalisyon ng mga Samahang Magsasaka at Manggagawa sa Niyugan (PKSMMN) shall have one nominee each. The depository bank — United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) if it remains such shall have one nominee as well as the coconut industry umbrella organization United Coconut Associations of the Philippines, Inc (UCAP). Other nationwide coconut farmer organizations duly recognized and accredited by the Philippine Coconut Authority maybe represented in the Board, provided that in their absence, in the meantime, the
COCOFED, PASCFO and PKSMMN shall jointly nominate such trustees.
The 8-7, 51-49, government-farmer ratio is consistent in applying the dual ownership of the funds: public, yes, with sure farmer participation as guarantee for the proper stewardship of these trust funds.
The corporate powers of the PCFF shall be exercised, all business conducted and all property of the Foundation controlled and held by this Board of Trustees whose term of office will be for six years, receive no salary but board meeting per diems only, hire officers and professional management to assist them in the stewardship of these public trust funds.
The draft bill that is now in its seventh revision seeks the urgent certification by the President for immediate enactment by Congress subject, of course, to the final disposition of the case at bar by the Supreme Court.
Which could be very soon – making these consultations rather worthwhile, historic and necessary. FINIS
Charles Avila -= The Gardener