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P 50 billion GMA-Danding deal could spark coco revolt

One of the groups which filed a plunder case against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and businessman Eduardo “ Danding” Cojuangco more than two years ago today warned Malacañang that the alleged ongoing negotiations for a P 50-B out of court settlement between President Arroyo and Cojuangco could spark a nationwide coco revolt.

In a press statement, the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said the syndicated and blasphemous deal between the Arroyo and Cojuangco camps could stir a nationwide social unrest among 1.3 million coconut farmers across the country.

“ We will not allow the Arroyo and Cojuangco syndicates to sign this death warrant for millions of struggling coconut farmers in the name of Malacañang’s play for political accommodation and survival,” says Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap, one of the leaders who filed the plunder complaint against President Arroyo and Cojuangco on November 13, 2003.

The militant leader noted on days after People Power 2, Ms Arroyo’s camp had tried to negotiate with the Cojuangco group an out-of-court settlement regarding the controversial coconut levy fund but it did not materialize due to extreme pressure from coconut farmers organizations.

“ The out-of-court settlement with Danding on the P 130-B coconut levy fund is one of Malacañang’s top agenda since the Arroyo gang assumed the presidency in 2001. The Macapagal-Arroyo group is now desperate to finance its survival campaign by pushing the 50-billion settlement so it could finance its’ counter-ouster campaign and survive the widespread movement for her ouster,” Hicap stressed.

Sometime in November 2003, another news broke out that Ms Arroyo was negotiating with Cojuangco for an out-of-court settlement to the tune of P 20-B that prompted Pamalakaya and other coconut farmers associations in Quezon province and Bicol region to file a plunder complaint against President Arroyo and Cojuangco.

Hicap’s group Pamalakaya along with staunch allies Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Amihan-National Federation of Peasant Women, Piglas-Quezon and Bicol Coconut Planters Association Inc. (BICPAI) filed the plunder complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman more than two years ago, but their case was still the anti-graft body despite repeated requests for then Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo to speed up the case.

The fresh warning for a coconut farmers’ revolt came a day after Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Camilo Sabio during a Senate budget hearing flatly refused to disclose the details of the ongoing negotiations for a 50-billion peso out of court settlement President Arroyo initiated with the Cojuangco group, which was asked by administration senator Joker P. Arroyo.

Sabio who replaced the late PCGG chair Haydee Yorac also rejected the request of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile to turn over documents to the Senate, citing Section 4B of Executive Order 1, which prevents any PCGG member or staff from producing any evidence before any judicial or legislative body. The PCGG chair’s response prompted Enrile to file a motion not to grant any budget allocation to the PCGG which sought a 67 million-peso budget for 2006.

“ Chairman Sabio is a willing servant, a hyper puppet of the Macapagal-Arroyo mafia in Malacañang and the coco levy gangland of Danding Cojuangco. What is 67 million pesos budget for PCGG compared to the P 50 billion out of court settlement his principal in Malacañang could get?” Pamalakaya’s Hicap said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 00:34 | link | comments |

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