Senator Cynthia Villar is confident that President Rodrigo Duterte will sign the re-filed Senate Bill 1233, or the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Act, and Senate Bill 1976, or the Strengthened Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).
Duterte vetoed the bill in February for lack of “safeguards” to prevent coco levy funds from being used unlawfully.
In her speech during the opening of the 2019 Davao Agri Trade Expo (DATE) in Davao City, Villar said she was hoping for its approval, noting that the President mentioned in his 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) that the development of the country’s coconut industry remains a priority.
The President said the use of the coconut levy fund which amounts to more than P100 billion would uplift the lives of coconut farmers.
The veteran legislator, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, said that one-third of the country’s arable land, or about 3.5 million hectares, are planted with coconuts.
“If we can lift them out of poverty, we would solve the poverty problem of the country.”
“So you can just imagine how many families depend on the coconut industry. If we can lift them out of poverty, we would solve the poverty problem of the country,” the seasoned lawmaker said.
In the Philippines, about 3.5 million out of the 8 million crop farmers are in the coconut industry.
“We must also teach small farmers capacity-building strategies and approaches.”
“Increasing food production and farm productivity alone cannot move farmers permanently out of poverty. We must also teach small farmers capacity-building strategies and approaches to get them to operate their small farms as agri-businesses and to make them more profitable and competitive,” the senator said.
She assured that there is adequate funding to provide for research and development, education or training of farmers, fisherfolk, and agricultural workers so they could practice agriculture more sustainably.