Bicam approves coco levy trust fund bill

August 1, 2018

The bicameral conference committee on Wednesday has agreed on a bill  setting up a trust fund from the coconut levy worth P105 billion collected for nearly a decade during the Marcos administration.

In an interview with reporters, Senator Cynthia Villar said the bicameral conference committee adopted the Senate version where the trust fund will be managed by the reconstituted Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA)

:We will just have to write it with all the bicameral changes and then it's ok. We have approved it in principle," said Villar, chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture.

Villar said the coco levy fund will be invested in treasury bills. "Every year, we will give to the reconstituted PCA to spend it as we enumerated where to spend it; like it will be spent on scholarship of children of farmers, their health benefits, and their shared facilities program and then their program to improve their farms," added Villar.

There will be four representatives from the government, one from the coconut industry and six coconut farmers in the reconstituted PCA, added Villar.

The senator said 3.5 million farmers are expected to benefit from the measure.

The government, she said, would set aside P10 billion a year for the trust fund while P5 billion yearly would come from the P105 billion coco levy fund, which could last up to 25 years.

The approved version will be sent to the Senate and the House of Representatives to be ratified. Then it will be forwarded to President Rodrigo Duterte for his signature.

The approved version in the bicam will be sent back to the Senate and the House of Representatives for ratification. DMS