黑料社

LUCENA CITY鈥擨n time for the annual celebration of 鈥淣iyogyugan (Coconut) Festival鈥� next week, Quezon Gov. David Suarez appealed to the national government to return the multibillion-peso coconut levy fund to farmers.

鈥淚t must be returned to them. I believe in justice. It came from them and they are the rightful owners of that fund,鈥� Suarez said in an interview on Aug. 1 in Unisan town.

The weeklong festival, to start on Aug. 10 at the provincial capitol complex here, is the local government鈥檚 way of recognizing the role of the coconut industry in the cultural and historical development of Quezon.

Suarez said the provincial government is now formulating the 鈥淐oconut Development Program Roadmap鈥� (CDPR) to serve as the 鈥渂ible鈥� for all plans to improve the lives of coconut farmers in Quezon.

In his five years as governor, Suarez said many of the projects and programs implemented by the national government 鈥渄id not produce the desired result for the benefit of the province.鈥�

鈥淲e now want to change the approach. We want the solutions to come from the farmers. And that鈥檚 what we will adopt,鈥� Suarez said.

He said one of the approaches under the planned CDPR is to diversify the local coconut industry and shift its focus away from just producing copra.

He said the province aims to boost the production of virgin coconut oil, coconut water, coconut coir and coconut sugar, among many other coconut by-products.

The province would help coconut farmers who want to engage in other coconut-related business, he said.

Suarez said the provincial government and the Philippine Coconut Authority would start a massive coconut replanting program, with over 100,000 seedlings to be planted this year.

Suarez said the P74 billion in levy forcibly collected from coconut farmers could be put to good use now that thousands of hectares of coconut farms had been ravaged by pests.

The total coconut levy fund is estimated to be around P200 billion, according to figures from several farmers organizations.