> TIME HAS FLOWN SO FAST…THE RUSH TO COUNTING
> VOTES IN IS ON
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> The past few weeks almost uprooted gardeners from their greens. They had earlier decided to send representatives to the next Congress through the Party-list system and this decision entails a lot of going around to tell what, explain why, and lead others to the same path.
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> Two historic events had happened. They had won the coco levy funds case in the Supreme Court. They had also won over their divisive selves to establish at last a new unified confederation of the three national federations of coconut farmers’ organizations.Yes, indeed, historic both – but the total project of recovery remained quite unfinished.
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> For one, the Supreme Court that had at last declared the coco levy funds (initially identified at 70 billion pesos) as both government and farmer owned rather than merely government or farmer, left unsaid what administrative mechanism there should be to manage the funds.
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> The funds were the result of a special tax and thus could understandably be considered public or government owned. Government ownership, however, should not be absolute but in the nature of trust ownership or – what is the same – stewardship. The government was to be regarded as the trustee of funds beneficially owned by (or for the benefit of) all the coconut farmers – for the development of the coconut industry.
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> “Coconut industry” was now a possibility, it was ardently hoped and desired. But they knew that coconut anarchy, not a rational industry, was the reality. For instance, one asked the world to come buy our coconut water but when the world made its orders there was not a drop to spare. An ocean of such water was merely wasted as acidic pollutants on the ground by a non-system that focused on copra and then threw away all useful parts of the coconut fruit, starting with that most precious healthful water.
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> As they woke up other gardeners to the wonders and wastes of the coconut tree, our gardeners saw greater tasks and challenges more clearly.
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> First, they saw how the rest of the nation – all sectors of present-day society – did not realize and therefore had to be made aware that their country was naturally gifted with a globally competitive edge. By contrast every citizen or subject of the Arabian countries, for instance, who most probably never worked in any oil fields of the realm, nonetheless knew just what fossil-based oil meant to them and their countries – that it was their natural competitive edge, the source of their national wealth.
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> Secondly, our renewable and sustainable source of national wealth was likewise the key to everyone’s health. So, the gardeners explained medium chain triglyceride, monolaurin, coco sugar and coco flour of low glycemic index fame.
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> In forum after forum they recounted the possible thousand and one uses , food and nonfood, that coconut was scientifically known to yield – uses and products in growing demand worldwide, at possible values a hundred times more than the measly 1.6 billion dollars exports of copra and raw coconut oil that the country was so proud to achieve yearly.
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> This is why the gardeners had resolved to campaign nationwide for representation in the country’s legislature. They want to use the funds wrung out of their immediate forebears, many of whom are still around, whose blood sweat and tears yielded the monies that have now ballooned to billions upon billions — manage and use these only for purposes that will benefit all coconut farmers and truly develop, diversify, integrate, rationalize and make the coconut industry ever more lovely, healthful and wealthy.
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> The month of February took the gardener to Mindanao three times, to Central Visayas twice, to Eastern Visayas, Southern Tagalog, Metro Manila and environs a few more times to gather support, count in the votes and realize he still has a long way, a very long way to go — more trips to take, more discussions to conduct, more speeches to give, more listening to feedback in all kinds of listeners’ remarks, more fund raising to keep the traveling, the communications, the persuading a tenacious concern for just seventy days more. FINIS.
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> check the latest at www.thegardenerstales.com
> COCONUT: key to national WEALTH,
> secret of everyone’s HEALTH.
> COCOFED Party-List
