This, after Poe, in a news conference in Candelaria, Quezon the other day, said that “the problem is that Danding Cojuangco doesn’t control it anymore because all the shares (bought with the coco levy funds) are now with the government.”
She further said “the funds should have been immediately given to the farmers after the Supreme Court made a final ruling on the coco levy assets in 2012, specifically that of the disputed SMC shares, 31 percent should go to the government and 20 percent to Cojuangco.”
“Small coconut farmers are totally disgusted over Poe’s defense of Cojuangco,” said KMP Secretary General Antonio Flores, reminding Poe that “small coconut farmers are still contesting Cojuangco’s 20 percent shares in SMC acquired from coco levy funds.”
Flores stressed that “the Supreme Court ruling is a product of ‘sweetheart deal’ between Cojuangco and his nephew, Pres. Aquino himself.” “This is exactly the reason why up to now, under a Cojuangco-Aquino presidency, small coconut farmers are still struggling to recover their money. It’s a Supreme Court-approved uncle-and-nephew political maneuver ganging up against small coconut farmers,” Flores said.
He accused Poe of being Cojuangco’s mouthpiece after the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) adopted her as its presidential candidate.
“Poe’s position on the coco levy fund is adding insult to the injury suffered by small coconut farmers during the Marcos regime,” Flores also said.
Flores also said that “Poe’s alliance with Cojuangco and reversing the historical truth on the coco levy plunder is Poe’s ‘Strike 2’ on farmers. The first was her totally disgusting statement to make Pres. Aquino, who plundered more than P471 million of disbursement acceleration program (DAP) funds as compensation to his relatives for the still undistributed Hacienda Luisita, as anti-corruption adviser.”
Flores called on the Filipino peasantry to “continue to challenge all candidates on the demand for genuine land reform, the return of the multi-billion coconut levy, and free irrigation, among others, and intensify the struggle for genuine land reform.”
