FARMERS' XMAS WISH: RETURN COCO LEVY
[PHOTO - SENATOR EDGARDO
ANGARA]
MANILA, DECEMBER 12, 2011 (TRIBUNE) Goons and guns hired
by "bad" powerful men are the usual tools in killing press freedom and freedom
of expression.
But a poor economy just like what the Philippine has under the Aquino
government can also kill press freedom.
During his speech at the Communications Expo 2011 in Boracay recently, Sen.
Edgardo Angara said the greatest enemy of press freedom and freedom of
expression is the poor economy of the country which makes publishing and
broadcasting difficult.
"The free economy — where demand and availability dictate price, especially
of oil, and with it, newsprint, ink and electricity — is killing freedom of
expression. It is killing free expression far more effectively than tyranny ever
could," he pointed out.
The veteran lawmaker explained that a weak economy leaves people with less
money for non-essentials, like newspapers whose prices go up to meet rising
costs. Instead of watching more bad news on TV, people may be working that extra
shift to make up for the shrinking buying power.
With government spending suspended by the Aquino government through the
Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in the last one and a half year, the
economy weakened and growth suffered.
"Today, our economy's growth has slowed from a little over seven to a under
four percent. The situation for media and other traditional forms of
communication will only worsen as the cost barrier to press freedom — the wall
of production and distribution costs around free and effective communication —
rises ever higher."
But Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on education, arts and culture,
said that economics also provides the answer: technology and innovation.
"It took 400 years to get most of the world accustomed and drawn to the
printed word. It only took a decade to revolutionize and universalize
communication through the world wide web," he said.
He cited the example of The New York Times which went bankrupt and had to be
rescued by the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, affecting its credibility. But
through its effective use of the web, it was able to turn its finances around.
Angara said "technology has opened a new frontier of communication where the
material cost is minimal compared with the intellectual and imaginative demands.
One needs more mind, memory and imagination to communicate effectively through
the web than on the printed page.
"The greatest threat to press freedom and freedom of expression is economics.
But the new economy has also provided the greatest means of liberation," he
added.
The two day convention was organized by the National Commission for Culture
and the Arts (NCCA)- National Committee on Communications.
Angara, known as a patron of culture and the arts, was the author of the law
which created the NCCA in 1992. Mario F. Fetalino Jr.
FROM THE INQUIRER
Wish of farmers this Christmas: Return coco levy
fund By Delfin Mallari Jr. Inquirer Southern Luzon
LUCENA CITY—Coconut farmers have one wish this Christmas: For
President Benigno Aquino III, his uncle Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco (photo)
and the Supreme Court to play Santa Claus and return billions of pesos in
coconut levy fund.
"All is not lost," said Danny Carranza, secretary general of Katarungan, a
coalition of peasant groups and reform advocates in the coconut industry.
Carranza noted that workers of Hacienda Luisita had finally secured a
favorable court ruling after a half century of legal battles over the
dismantling of the sugar plantation owned by the Aquino-Cojuangco clan.
"There is still a ray of hope that the elusive justice will also be granted
to millions of coconut farmers," said Carranza, whose organization is among
those seeking the return to the farmers funds from the levy imposed during the
martial law years that were used to acquire shares of stocks in San Miguel Corp.
(SMC).
The holdings—20 percent designated as SMC stocks said to be in Cojuangco's
name and 27 percent tagged as CIIF shares after state-owned companies set up
under the Coconut Industry Investment Fund—were sequestered after the ouster of
the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
In a ruling in April denounced by a dissenting justice as the "joke of the
century," the high court gave Cojuangco the 20-percent block of SMC shares.
But the ownership of the CIIF-SMC shares remains to be decided by the high
tribunal although it had ruled that it was prima facie public having been
purportedly acquired with levy money.
"We appeal to the Supreme Court to reverse its decision granting 20 percent
of San Miguel shares to Mr. Cojuangco and also decide the fate of the other 27
percent shares in favor of the coconut farmers. That's a very relevant Christmas
gift that the justices can give to the farmers," Joann Fernandez, Katarungan
spokesperson, said on Sunday.
Fernandez also asked Cojuangco, the SMC chair and a major contributor to
Mr. Aquino's presidential campaign last year, to refrain from contesting a
second motion for reconsideration of the court's April decision and yield the
shares to the farmers.
"Not everything in this world is about money, Mr. Cojuangco. Open your heart
this Christmas and hear the plea of the millions of coconut farmers for you to
return the coco levy fund to them," Fernandez said.
Plea to Aquino
Carranza appealed to Mr. Aquino to publicly declare his support for coconut
farmers seeking the return of the levy fund.
"If President Aquino wants to bring joy to the country's coconut farmers this
Christmas, his administration should now boldly declare the government's resolve
to bring justice to the farmers by supporting their fight for the return of the
levy fund," Carranza said.
"To complete his Christmas gift package, President Aquino should also lay
down the government's comprehensive program to rehabilitate the ailing coconut
industry and to end the sufferings of the farmers using the coco levy fund."
The 3.5 million coconut farmers are among the poorest of the poor in the
Philippines, studies have shown.
Two weeks ago, more than 100 coconut farmers from Quezon joined by Church
people and activists groups staged a 160-kilometer march from Lucena City to
Manila to dramatize their demand the return of the coco levy fund.
"Despite the hardship during the march, the farmers were all in high spirits
because of the tremendous and growing support extended to them by the public.
They were also able to get the attention of national government officials. They
were all victorious," Jansept Geronimo, secretary of the Coalition of Coconut
Farmers of Quezon, said over the phone on Sunday.
Shares worth P200B
Marcos had imposed the levy, which at one point reached as high as P100 per
100 kilograms, from 1973 to 1982. Quezon was believed to be the biggest
contributor to the fund.
Court records showed that proceeds from the tax on farm-gate sale of copra by
the farmers, deposited in United Coconut Planters Bank, were used to acquire 51
percent of SMC shares in 1983—4 percent of which were subsequently converted
into treasury notes.
Valued at P2 billion then, the block of shares was estimated to be worth
around P200 billion now.
In December 2001, the Supreme Court declared the coco levy funds "prima facie
(apparently) public funds," but left the Sandiganbayan to determine the owner of
the assets acquired with the funds.
In May 2004, the Sandiganbayan awarded the 27-percent block of CIIF-SMC
shares to the government, which holds it in trust for the country's coconut
farmers.
In April, however, the Supreme Court affirmed a 2007 decision of the
Sandiganbayan and declared that the 20-percent block of shares in SMC held by
Cojuangco, which coconut farmers claimed were also bought using the coco levy
fund, was his "exclusive property."
The motion for reconsideration filed by coconut farmers group on the
20-percent block of shares was not only denied but was expunged by the high
tribunal. A second motion for reconsideration was filed by farmers groups and
the Presidential Commission on Good Government last November.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved
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