Coconut farmers file charges against Danding Cojuangco
Coconut farmers filed a plunder case against Eduardo �Danding� Cojuangco with the Office of the Ombudsman on November 13. The case principally involves Danding�s use of P130 billion in coco levy funds to purchase First United Bank (FUB) stocks in 1975.
The coconut farmers filed the case at the initiative of the Pinag-isang Lakas ng Magbubukid sa Quezon and the Bicol Coconut Planters Association Inc. Also named as respondents are Juan Ponce Enrile who then chaired the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) and Maria Clara Lobregat who was then a director of the agency.
The complaint states that in 1975 the respondents bought 72.2% of FUB�s (now the United Coconut Planters Bank) authorized capital stock. It was the PCA that paid for the stocks, with the cost later reimbursed from the coco levy funds. Sixty-four point ninety-eight percent (64.98%) of the stocks were placed in the name of the PCA supposedly for the benefit of the coconut farmers. Cojuangco took direct control of the remaining 7.7%.
Said the coconut farmers� lawyer Atty. Jobert Pajilda, �we believe that Cojuangco and the other respondents are still committing plunder because they continue to benefit from their earlier illegal acts.� Thus, there is basis for filing a case even if the recently enacted Plunder Law could not be applied retroactively.
Earlier, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) appealed to the Sandiganbayan to reverse its recent decision nullifying the sequestration of Cojuangco�s stocks in the San Miguel Corporation (SMC).
The KMP said that the court must immediately resolve the issue and reverse the decision to prevent the conspiracy to plunder the coco levy funds.
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