Sen. Grace Poe and Sen. Chiz Escudero defends one of their millionaire supporter Danding Cojuangco on the controversial coco levy fund which according to some analyst a sign that Sen. Poe and Sen. Escudero started paying back to their benefactors.
According to the Poe-Escudero tandem the government should be blamed for the delay in deploying the multi-billion-peso coconut levy fund and not businessman and former Aquino crony Danding Cojuangco Jr.
The statement of Sen. Grace Poe defending Danding Cojuangco was released during a press conference in Candelario, Quezon. According to the presidential candidate, she herself was getting impatient that coconut farmers have yet to benefit from the coco levy funds more than four decades after they apid the forced tax to coco farmers nationwide.
Sen. Grace Poe was quoted as saying “But the problem is that Danding Cojuango doesn’t control it anymore because all the shares (bought with the coco levy funds) are now with the government,” said Sen. Grace Poe.
The presidential aspirant also explained that the said coco levy funds should have been immediately given to the farmers after the Supreme Court made a final ruling on the coco levy assets in 2012, especially that of the disputed San Miguel Corp. shares, 31 percent should go to the government and 20 percent to Cojuangco.
Sen. Grace stated “But the government had other ideas on how to deploy the coco levy funds which explains why it hasn’t been distributed to the rightful beneficiaries,” she said.
