PHILIPPINES: PALACE, PCGG ASKED IF THEY WILL PURSUE COMPROMISE DEAL IN VIEW OF COURT RULING FAVORABLE TO COJUANGCO

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr.
(PDP-Laban) today asked Malacañang and Presidential
Commission on Good Government whether they will still
pursue an out-of-court settlement on the multi-billion
peso coconut levy cases in view of last week’s
decision of the Sandiganbayan that upheld businessman
Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco’s claim of ownership over
the 20 percent shareholding in the Sandiganbayan which
was believed to have been purchased with levy funds.

Pimentel said the Sandiganbayan ruling, disappointing
as it was, seemed inconsistent with the Supreme Court
decision, rendered in the late 1990s, which held that
the coconut levy assets invested in the SMC, were
imbued with public interest, which means these are not
privately owned.

Later, the Sandiganbayan, in a verdict issued May,
2004 held that the 27 percent shareholding in the SMC
should be considered public funds and held in trust by
the government for the benefit of the coconut farmers.

Pimentel said latest anti-graft court’s ruling
recognizing Cojuangco’s ownership of 20 percent of the
SMC shareholding that is tied up in the coconut levy
cases is prejudicial to the interest of some 18
million coconut farmers and workers who should benefit
from the levy funds in the form of programs to
rehabilitate the ailing coconut industry and to
ameliorate their economic and social conditions.

However, he said it is consoling to note that the
Presidential Commission on Good Government will file a
motion for reconsideration of the Sandiganbayan
decision or if necessary bring the case to the Supreme
Court.

The senator from Mindanao said it was puzzling why
despite the earlier court victories that the
government scored in the coconut levy cases,
Malacañang and the PCGG revived the effort to enter
into a compromise settlement with Cojuangco and other
big-time stakeholders in the coconut industry.

“I was wondering if the government had the upperhand
in the cases, why should it be the one seeking a
compromise?” he asked.

Reacting to PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio’s argument that
it was the coconut farmers themselves who were for an
out-of-court settlement to avoid prolonged litigation,
Pimentel said the fact is that big groups of coconut
farmers, such as those headed by former Sen. Wigberto
Tanada and former Quezon Rep. Oscar Santos were
strongly against such course of action.

Pimentel said he agrees with the position of the
Tanada and Santos that it would be to the interest of
the government and the farmers to instead pursue the
coconut levy cases, involving about P130 billion in
sequestered shareholdings in the SMC, with the courts.

He said that there are better prospects of finally
resolving the 20-year old coconut levy cases if the
government will focus its efforts on these cases.

The senator said there should no further delay in
terminating these cases for the sake of the
marginalized small coconut farmers whose economic
condition continues to deteriorate due to the
government’s failure to rehabilitate the moribund
coconut industry.
-o0o-

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