According to the Sandiganbayan decision, the PCGG failed to do its job. The facts are so glaring yet they were not able to present the evidence in their possession properly in court. Hence, we will intervene, says Romeo Royandoyan, Executive Director of Centro Saka, Inc. (CSI)

Moreover, Cojuangco already admitted in his Answer and Pre-Trial Brief that the subject SMC shares were purchased through loans from UCPB. So the link and the trail had already been clearly established. Under Section 4, Rule 129 of the Rules of Court, such judicial admission “does not require proof”, exclaimed Oscar Santos, former congressman and staunch coco levy advocate. Said SMC shares were purchased using the proceeds of the loans admittedly obtained by Mr. Cojuangco and his companies (the 14 Holding Companies) from UCPB. Therefore, Cojuangco had admitted that the funds used to purchase the subject SMC shares came from borrowings from UCPB by him and his companies.

It is highly questioannable that the Sandiganbayan decided differently from its previous rulings on the coconut levy cases (i.e. UCPB and CIIF-SMC shares) even as the source of the funds for the shares claimed by Cojuangco came from the same source—the coconut levies”, according to Ka Nilo Suante, Kalipunan ng Maliliit na Magniniyog ng Pilipinas (KAMMPIL) National President.

Former Senator and Chair of Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) Wigberto “Bobby” Tañada further added that Cojuangco, in the purchase of the subject SMC shares from such loan proceeds, violated his fiduciary duties to UCPB and the CIIF companies, since he was then President/ Director of UCPB and Director of the CIIF companies. The subject SMC shares should therefore revert and go back to the government.

“It is a clear scenario of the compromise agreement being peddled and we are very disappointed with the current PCGG. PCGG looking the other way and not focusing on the evidence already there is highly suspicious” said Joey Faustino of the Coconut Industry Reform Movement (COIR), Inc. In fact, Cojuangco was even granted by the Sandiganbayan an authority to sell a portion of the said 20% shares to pay his loans to UCPB last May 2007, he further added.

The coco levy funds belong to the coconut farmers and as stated in the December 28, 2004 Sandiganbayan decision “It is high time that the real beneficiaries of the coconut levy funds, THE COCONUT FARMERS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO IT, and the entire coconut industry be given a chance to reap the benefits that are due them”. The current PCGG should have done their best to win this case, but instead they jeopardized our court victories as they insisted that a compromise agreement is the best option says Vicente Fabe, Chairperson of Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahan ng Magsasaka (PAKISAMA).

The current PCGG completely lost our trust and there is nothing left but to unite and pursue justice ourselves. The 20% SMC shares being claimed by Danding Cojuangco came from coco levy funds and we are ready to prove that in court says Virgilio Eleazar Vice - President of the Nagkakaisang Ugnayan ng mga Maliit na Magsasaka at Manggagawa sa Niugan. (NIUGAN)

“There is no doubt that the coconut levy funds came from the small coconut farmers. These are public funds, raised using the taxing power of the government. Loans obtained by Mr. Cojuangco to purchase the 20 percent SMC shares are clearly behest loans. The Sandiganbayan’ s decision awarding the 20% SMC shares to Danding Cojuangco is not only incongruent to the public character of the funds. It is an injustice to all coconut farmers”, said Rasma Ampuan, Secretary General of the Moro Farmers Association of Zamboanga Del Sur.