PCGG willing to negotiate with Danding on coco levy

Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairwoman Haydee Yorac said yesterday she was willing to talk with businessman Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr. on the coconut levy fund but he must make the initiative.

In a radio interview, Yo-rac said the PCGG would not initiate negotiations on how to unlock the P130-billion levy fund which has been frozen by the Supreme Court pending the resolution of an ownership dispute.

Moreover, Yorac said negotiations on the fund would have to abide by the PCGG policy that any settlement must benefit the coconut farmers from whom the levy was collected from 1971 to 1983.

Yorac made the remarks a day after Cojuangco, chairman of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), denied he would personally benefit from a compromise agreement that was supposedly reached between the farmers and the Coconut Planters Federation of the Philippines (Cocofed), which is also contesting ownership of the fund.

Meanwhile, PCGG Commissioner Ruben Carranza Jr. said the agency may file criminal charges before the Ombudsman against five directors who are sitting in the SMC board of directors as nominees of the PCGG.

Claiming the five directors were nominees of jailed former President Joseph Estrada, Carranza said these nominees should have stepped down when Estrada was ousted in January.

"(They) now illegally sit in the board of SMC... They claim to have been nominated by the PCGG (but) they are not. In truth, they were the nominees of Estrada," he said.

The officials are Estrada’s brother-in-law Raul de Guzman, Allan Lee, Esperidion Laxa, Benjamin Paulino and Hermogenes Tantoco.

The government wants to replace them with Renato Valencia, Octavio Espiritu, Leo Alvez, Hector Hofileña and Franklin Fuentebella.

The PCGG had filed a petition before the SC to annul the election of the Estrada nominees but the high tribunal has not rendered a decision.

Carranza said the criminal charges the PCGG may file before the Ombudsman would be based on Article 237 of the Revised Penal Code which punishes the act of "prolonging performance of duties and powers" with a maximum of almost two years imprisonment.

"Without the PCGG nomination, they cannot stay in the SMC board. We want to place people there whom we can trust. It is our mandate to preserve sequestered assets," Carranza said.

The replacement of the five Estrada nominees may also lead to the ouster of Cojuangco who was named to the chairmanship of the food and beverage conglomerate via the shares bought through the levy fund.

On Tuesday, Cojuangco denied insinuations that he would personally benefit from the levy fund settlement reached between farmers’ groups in Davao five weeks ago.

He explained that a meeting with farmers’ groups at the residence of Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla was limited to a covenant signing aimed at resolving the plight of small farmers and the ailing coconut industry.

Signatories during the Oct. 28 meeting included Zamboanga City Mayor and Cocofed president Clara Lobregat and leaders of producers’ and farmers’ groups.

They agreed that shareholdings in SMC, called the coconut industry investment fund (CIIF), be used to establish a P57-million trust fund, the income from which will be used for the benefit of farmers and the industry itself.