“Let Pangilinan experience for himself the daily hardships of the farmers,” Hicap said.
As Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization (PAFSAM), Pangilinan has oversight authority over the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA), the National Food Authority (NFA), the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).
“Pangilinan failed to grasp the fact that that coco levy was basically extorted from the farmers under the Marcos dictatorship, and its non-return for about three decades is worsening the injustice the farmers suffered. To have even an idea of this injustice, I challenge Pangilinan actually live with one of the coconut farmers,” Hicap said.
Hicap said his family is one of the victims of forced exaction of the coco levy fund during the Marcos presidency.
“Aquino and ‘daang matuwid’s’ plan was to privatize and treat it as a perpetual fund or only using the earnings for the supposed welfare of the coconut farmers,” Hicap noted.
During the 16th Congress, Anakpawis pushed House Bill No. 1327 or the creation of the Genuine Small Coconut Farmers’ Fund (GSCFF). The bill proposes that the coconut levy fund and assets be used for the welfare of the coconut farmers and that its governing council be mostly composed of real farmers, beyond the control of the president or any government technocrat or executive.
“The coco levy issue is test case for the Duterte administration, hence, we remind them that it is imperative to sincerely distribute the fund, as the leftovers of ‘daang matuwid’ is working to sabotage the president-elect’s promise,” Hicap said.
