MANILA – An estimated P74 billion worth of assets from the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) belong to the government and should be distributed to coconut farmers, the Sandiganbayan ruled.
The anti-graft court’s Second Division, in a resolution dated Aug. 7, overturned its 2017 decision calling for more hearings on the civil case involving the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and the Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corp. (Cocolife) by granting the state’s motion for reconsideration.
The government argued that the Sandiganbayan has no authority to review the landmark Supreme Court ruling that declared San Miguel Corp. (SMC) shares as government property since these were acquired using coco levy funds that were collected from coconut farmers during the Marcos administration.
In 2014 the high court ruled with finality on the 2004 decision of the Sandiganbayan that awarded the ownership of the coco levy funds in favor of the government.
The Sandiganbayan said the SC decision is already final and executory with the issue of ownership only left for determination – despite the fact that it gave the UCPB and Cocolife the chance to assert their claim last year.
The Sandiganbayan thus issued a writ of partial execution, ordering all income earned by 20 CIIF companies and the more than 753 million preferred shares of the SMC be used to benefit the coconut industry.
“All income, interest or profit derived from these assets, to be used only for the benefit of all coconut farmers and for the development of the coconut industry,” the resolution read.
Around P74 billion in coco levy funds is already with the national treasury but the Presidential Commission on Good Government said there are billions of pesos more that have yet to be recovered.
The government now has no legal hurdle to distribute the coco levy funds to farmers but a law on its implementation has yet to be passed.
President Rodrigo Duterte had urged Congress in his third State of the Nation Address to pass a law creating a trust fund for coconut farmers.
The Bicameral Conference Committee approved a bill last week creating a P100-billion coco levy trust fund to be used for 25 years for the benefit of 3.5 million coconut farmers.
The bill states the fund will be invested in treasury bills and handled by the Philippine Coconut Authority. (GMA News)
