Sunday, May 15, 2011

The coco levy injustice


Grassroots & Governance

By Teresa S. Abesamis
Business World
The eight Supreme Court justices who voted in favor of Marcos crony Danding Cojuangco’s ownership of the San Miguel shares funded out of the coconut levy will have to answer one day to their Maker, since they have not answered to the coconut farmers for the dastardly act by Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco and his lawyer, former Marcos era Solicitor-General Estelito Mendoza, of depriving the farmers of their rightful share in San Miguel Corporation.
The shares after all, whatever legal gobbledygook Danding Cojuangco’s lawyer will utter, were financed by levies extracted from coconut farmers’ meager incomes by force of edicts signed by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos during martial law. For want of anything else she could do or say, the revered and truly honorable Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales could only refer to this latest injustice by the eight dishonorables as “the laughingstock of the century.”
Indeed, if it were not so tragic, the latest decision on the coconut levy funds by the Supreme Court is truly ludicrous. Eight voted in favor of the Cojuangco position, four dissented, and three who were also present, “did not vote” for reasons they cited, of “delicadeza.” Perhaps, if the Catholic Church hierarchy were not too intensely concerned with what we do with our spermatozoa and ova, they might be able to apply friendly persuasion to shift at least half these votes “to dismiss” the government’s case, to favor the coconut farmers as a manifestation of their love for their neighbor, as the Bible says Christ taught us to do. Hope springs eternal.
Estimates range from 20 to 30% on the participation of the coconut farmers in the economy. This is pretty close to the estimates on poverty incidence. Fishers and landless rural workers make up the balance of our countrymen living below the poverty line, if you deduct those coconut farmers who are more prosperous than the majority.
Surely there is something morally wrong about enabling one person to own corporate shares which he financed against his fiduciary obligations and single borrowers’ limits to protect the farmers’ moneys. Danding Cojuangco was president of UCPB when it lent him money as part of loans to “DOSRI” (directors, officers, and related interests). Not only was he president of the UCPB, Cojuangco was also a UCPB director, and additionally, director at the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA). Since now Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, then Marcos’s Defense secretary was concurrently chair of PCA and UCPB, doesn’t it look really funny how it all looks like interlocking directorates? A little bird tells me that JPE’s man Friday, now Senator Gringo Honasan, was on the payroll of the PCA at the same time as he served in the military. The late Ma. Clara Lobregat, who headed the Cocofed at the time, was the third leg in the triumvirate that controlled the coconut farmers’ money, which, according to the Marcos Presidential Decree 232 dated June 1973 (clearly during martial law) that created the PCA was formed in order to “accelerate growth and development of the coconut and other palm oils industry so that the benefits of such growth shall accrue to the greatest number.”
Senate President JPE has defended the Supreme Court decision as fair since, as he says, Cojuangco borrowed the money from the UCPB in order to buy the San Miguel shares from the Ayalas. It seems to be typical of JPE to see only the technically legal aspect, never mind the question of right or wrong. Never mind if Presidential Letter of Instruction (LOI) 926 issued under the dictatorship enabled Cojuangco to circumvent banking laws or traditions against DOSRI and single borrowers’ limits.
But if the intention was to accelerate growth and development of the coconut industry . . . so “that the benefits of such growth shall accrue to the greatest number,” can we seriously say that Danding Cojuangco represents the greatest number? Surely, you jest.
President Cory Aquino made sure that the San Miguel shares were sequestered by the PCGG away from her own cousin’s control, since it was considered unexplained wealth. An earlier Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Hilarion Davide, Jr., declared the coco levy funds and therefore the San Miguel shares as “public in character.” This happened despite an effort of Danding Cojuangco’s nephew, and later presidential candidate Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr., to push for Davide’s impeachment.
Today, the Arroyo Court headed by Chief Justice Renato Corona has issued a decision that rewards Danding Cojuangco for his shrewdness in using his close connections to Marcos, whom he accompanied in a flight to life in exile during the EDSA Revolution. Where does that leave the coconut farmers?
The PCGG has filed a motion for reconsideration of the Supreme Court decision. The government headed by President Benigno Aquino III has a moral obligation to do all in its power, in justice to President Cory’s efforts, and in consonance with its commitment to fight poverty by fighting corruption, to do all it can to persuade the Supreme Court justices to change their vote against the injustice rendered to the coconut farmers. Here is where the Church leaders can help with prayers, since we need no less than a miracle to make this happen.
Those who favored the pro-Danding motion vote could change their vote, by only a miracle. Only heaven and the lawyer Estelito Mendoza would know the reason why not.
The good guys in the Supreme Court, who dissented, in addition to Honorable Justice Conchita Carpio Morales, are: Honorable Justices Maria Lourdes Sereno, Arturo Brion, and Jose Mendoza. Honorable Justices, May your tribe increase! And may the coconut farmers finally, after all these decades, obtain justice.

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