AGRARIAN GROUPS: USE COCO LEVY FUND TO HELP FARMERS RISE FROM TYPHOON IMPACT

LUCENA CITY—National farmer groups urged the Marcos administration to tap the multibillion-peso coconut levy fund to help the coconut farmers rise up from the devastation of Supertyphoon “Karding” (international name: Noru).

“The coconut levy fund should now be used to assist the typhoon-affected coconut farming sector,” Danny Carranza, secretary general of Kilusan Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo at Katarungang Panlipunan, said in a phone interview on Saturday.

Carranza noted that in Quezon province alone, more than 27,000 hectares of coconut farms were damaged by Karding on Sept. 25. Most of the damaged farms were in the northern part of the province, including the towns belonging to the Polillo Group of Islands —Polillo, Burdeos, Panukulan, Jomalig and Patnanungan.

Damage sustained by the coconut sector in the province was more than P26 million and affected more than 9,000 coconut farmers, the provincial agriculture office said in a report on Friday.

‘Now is the time’

Rene Cerilla, policy advocacy development officer of Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka, demanded the immediate implementation of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act, or Republic Act No. 11524.

“Now is the time for the government to implement the true intent of RA 11524—that is, to help the coconut farmers who have long been living in abject condition, especially after every typhoon that destroys their farms,” Cerilla said in a separate phone interview.

RA 11524, signed by then President Duterte on Feb. 26, 2021, created a trust fund that aimed to benefit some 3.5 million coconut farmers who own not more than 5 hectares of land and belong to the poorest sector in the country.

Carranza recalled that in previous destructive typhoons that hit Quezon, “the government has no systematic and coherent rehabilitation programs for the affected agricultural sector.”

“We hope that it will not happen again this time. That the emergency and recovery needs of communities that are worst-affected by the typhoon are timely attended,” Carranza stressed.

Need food

Quezon farmers are believed to have been the biggest contributors to the coco levy fund exacted from them from 1973 to 1982 during the martial law regime under dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the father and namesake of the incumbent president.

Meanwhile, tribe leader Marcelino Tena of the Samahan ng mga Katutubong Agta/ Dumagat-Remontado na Binabaka at Ipinagtatanggol ang Lupaing Ninuno, appealed to the national government to help the 218 tribal families in the village of Carlagan in Burdeos.

“They immediately need food, new fishing boats, and housing materials to rebuild their lives,” Tena said in an online message to the Inquirer.

Burdeos was one of the worst hit localities by the typhoon in the province.