New board takes over UCPB today

Malacañang-appointed Deogracias "Sonny" Vistan and Francisco del Rosario Jr. will assume their posts as chairman and president, respectively, of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) effective today. They replace Jeronimo Kilayco and Lorenzo Tan.

Aside from Vistan and Del Rosario, the other government nominees to the UCPB board are former Congressman Oscar Santos, who is head of the Coconut Industry Reform Movement; Efren Villasenor, chairman and president of the Pambansang Kilusan ng Maliliit na Magniniyug or PEKSMAN; Manuel Valdueza, Dodi Limcaoco, Helen Osias, Dunga Lim, a certain Mr. Lejano, Rolando Golez, Juan Carlos, columnist Alex Magno, Tess Baltazar, Bong Arceo Jr. and businessman Joey Rufino.

Vicente Jayme, the nominee of the Multisectoral Task Force on Coco Levy (MTFCL) for UCPB chairman, was not included in the government list.

Finance Secretary Alberto Romulo also said government will still pursue its plan to regain control of both UCPB and San Miguel Corp., which government insists, were bought by Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. in the early 1980s using the funds of the coconut levy imposed on coconut farmers.

Despite an earlier statement of President Arroyo that government does not have enough shares to take control of SMC from Cojuangco, Romulo said government will amass enough shares to unseat Cojuangco once the courts declare that the contested 27-percent stake in the company are government-held shares.

‘It’s true, we do not have the numbers at this stage because of pending issues in court, but the presidential legal counsel led by Avelino Cruz will go to the courts to insist that we have the numbers," Romulo said.

He explained that government is seeking to reverse Executive Order 313 issued by former President Joseph Estrada which declared the coco levy funds as public funds. This became the basis for Cojuangco to acquire the additional voting rights for the 27-percent stake in SMC.
Romulo said the coconut farmers groups’ want Cojuangco out of SMC.

"Once the courts declare the contested shares as public funds, the stewards of SMC and UCPB should be the representatives of coconut farmers, and they can choose their chairman," Romulo added.