MANILA – Anakpawis party list has criticized President Aquino for his Executive Orders 179 and 180, that intends to privatize the multi-billion coconut levy funds and assets while coconut farmers are struggling for decades to reclaim all these pending legislative proposal such as the House Bill 1327 or the Genuine Small Coconut Farmers Fund (GSCFF).
“Ang ibig sabihin ng coco ay mula sa mga magsasaka sa niyugan, hindi mula kay Danding Cojuangco papunta sa pamangkin niyang si Noynoy Cojuangco-Aquino,” said Anakpawis Rep. Fernando Hicap in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said that the coconut levy fund and assets were extorted from poor coconut farmers during the Marcos dictatorship, hence there is no doubt on who is really the owners of the said fund. Aquino’s EOs also go against the 2012 Supreme Court ruling that the funds were public.
Hicap said the planned privatization of coconut levy fund and assets such as the Coconut Industry Investment Fund companies and block shares in San Miguel Corp., would not benefit the coconut farmers from whom the fund were sourced. He said the Aquino-ordered privatization coincide with the neo-liberal policies of liberalization, privatization and deregulation for the benefit of foreign monopoly capitalism and “comprador bourgeoisie.”
The country’s coconut production since from 1993 to 2013 averaged to almost 14 million metric tons, or top two of the world’s, next to Indonesia.
“Hindi ordinaryong public fund and coco levy fund, ang salitang public ay nangangahulugang publiko mismo, ang mga magsasaka sa niyugan, hindi ang gubyerno sa pangunguna ni Aquino,” Hicap said.
Anakpawis said that Aquino is living up to his name as a plunderous landlord, throwing away the decades old struggle of the Filipino peasantry to reclaim the immoral fund by cashing in through privatization. In addition, Aquino is also sparking a conflict with the legislative branch where pending measures on the coconut levy fund and assets are being deliberated.
Hicao, himself a coconut farmer, said that as the Constitution apparently have no provisions for such historical plunders, he has filed House Bill 1327 or the GSCFF to directly give back the coconut levy fund to the farmers. The said bill is backed up by small coconut farmers, from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, organized as the Coco Levy Fund Ibalik Sa Amin alliance and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
“Dinambong na nga ng tiyuhin nya mula sa mga magsasaka, ngayon si Aquino naman ang mandarambong sa coco levy fund, dapat lamang natin itong labanan,” Hicap said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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