{"id":201513,"date":"2019-02-09T22:59:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T03:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=201513"},"modified":"2019-02-09T22:59:28","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T03:59:28","slug":"prrd-wants-more-safeguards-in-coco-levy-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/09\/prrd-wants-more-safeguards-in-coco-levy-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD wants \u2018more safeguards\u2019 in coco levy bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech after leading the ceremonial turnover of housing units to wounded police officers and soldiers at the Pleasant View Residences in the City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan on January 10, 2019. REY BANIQUET\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte has vetoed a bill strengthening the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) for lacking \u201csafeguards\u201d to prevent coco levy funds from being used unlawfully, Malaca\u00f1ang said.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the President has recognized Congress for passing the consolidated version Senate Bill 1976 and House Bill 8852 — An Act to Further Strengthen the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).<\/p>\n

However, he stressed that the President opted to use his veto power \u201cwith the thought and confidence that the lawmakers can re-craft one that will provide more safeguards to protect the taxpayers’ money and shield the levy funds from irregular and unlawful use, as well as guarantee its proper management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelo enumerated four grounds cited by the President for veto, including how PHP10-billion in annual appropriation for the development of an industry whose implementation is placed on an agency not required to seek approval from the Executive Branch is \u201csusceptible to corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe oversight functions over the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) is placed only with Congress. Specifically, the strengthened PCA Bill mentions of an oversight to be exercised by the Coconut Farmers and the Industry Oversight Committee to the exclusion of the Executive Branch,\u201d Panelo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Panelo said another ground cited by the President is that a reconstituted PCA is given various functions, including but not limited to the sale, disposition, or dissolution of coco levy assets \u201cwithout checks and balances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch condition will diminish the ability of the Department of Justice, through the Office of the Solicitor-General in coordination with the Presidential Commission on Good Government to act on cases relating to coco levy assets,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He also noted that under the PCA bill, the composition of the reconstituted 15-member PCA Board includes seven members coming from the private sector which might allow them to \u201cinfluence\u201d public funds\u2019 disbursement.<\/p>\n

\u201cA receipt of PHP10-billion by the board from taxpayers’ money therefore translates to permitting private persons to influence the disbursement of public funds,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

The last ground cited by Duterte for veto is how the PCA can be likened to a Road Board which currently faces allegations of corruption and misappropriation of funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe PCA Board, like the Road Board which disburses the Motor Vehicle User\u2019s Charge, is given full authority to disburse PHP10-billion every year in perpetuity without a terminal date, and subject only to review by Congress after six years,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, emphasized that Duterte\u2019s decision to veto the PCA bill is not only a reflection of promoting good governance and public accountability, but will also give Congress more time to improve it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe veto of the bill will give Congress more time and opportunity to improve the formulation of the PCA and the distribution of coco levy funds,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe veto by PRRD of the legislative measure is a reflection of the principled stand of this administration in promoting good governance and public accountability,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The PCA Bill is one of the priority bills pushed by Duterte.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed measure, the reconstituted and strengthened PCA will handle PHP100-billion fund for coco levy.<\/p>\n

The reconstituted PCA gives greater representation of farmers with six seats (two each from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao) in the 11-member PCA Board.<\/p>\n

Other members will be composed of a representative from the PCA, the Department of Finance, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Budget and Management, and one coconut industry stakeholder.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte has vetoed a bill strengthening the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) for lacking \u201csafeguards\u201d to prevent …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":197360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}