FILE PHOTO: Sen. Cynthia Villar.
Senate Committee on Food and Agriculture Chairperson Cynthia Villar is planning to push a bill on the creation of a Coconut Industry Development Fund in the next Congress.
It covers the process of managing the Coco Levy fund so that farmers would fully benefit from it.
“I have 12 bills to pass concerning agriculture. The most important of which is the Coconut Industry Development Fund and it includes measures on how we will manage the Coco Levy Fund at the same time manage Philippine Coconut Authority.
The incoming Duterte administration has assured to address the issue on Coco Levy Fund and thus ordered Atty. Salvador Panelo to produce the 71 billiom pesos fund.
Sen. Villar suggests that instead of distributing cash to farmers, the fund should be used on projects that would benefit the coconut farmers.
“If you give 20,000 pesos to a family, what will happen next? It could cause fight among family members,” Sen. Villar explained.
Villar says it would be better to create programs that would help the farmers such as scholarship grants for their children.
Villar also says that it should be closely monitored as to where the Philippine Coconut Authority Fund is being used as well as the interest of the Coco Levy fund to make sure that the farmers are benefiting from it.
“The budget of the PCA must be recorded, where it is being spent, as well as the Coco Levy fund. We never know. The budget of the PCA is being used and the only one left is the Coco Levy fund. The coconut farmers would suffer. That should be an addition,”
(JOSHUA ANTONIO/UNTV NEWS)
The post Sen. Villar to incoming admin: return Coco Levy fund as projects to farmers instead of cash appeared first on UNTV News.