The Coco Levy Scam orchestrated by former President Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies (foremost of which was Danding Cojuangco) during the Marcos Dictatorship, taxed the coconut farmers in the guise of developing the coconut industry and alleviating the plight of the marginalized coconut farmer. Instead, the substantial funds generated from the Levy over the course of the Dictatorship were used for the personal profit of Ferdinand Marcos, Danding Cojuangco, Juan Ponce Enrile (yes, virtually the “Father of Grand Scams in the Philippines”, this bastard was involved in this one too; yet, neither Danding nor Johnny are locked-up in jail), among other cronies. (Don’t tell me Edgardo Angara of ACCRA Law Offices did not get a hefty chunk of change for prostituting his legal skills to Danding. Just look at all the ill-gotten wealth—land and other properties—he now owns in Baler . . . and that’s just for being a crony of a crony . . . but I digress.)
Ever since Marcos and Danding were puked-out of the Philippines, they have mobilized their virtually unlimited ill-gotten wealth and resources to prevent and frustrate the just recovery and rightful return of the same to the national coffers, including an aggressive, sustained and generously-funded legal and extra-legal (i.e., over the past forty (40) plus years, many corrupt government officials have gotten wealthy from bribes to obstruct, side-track, delay or just sit on the proper resolution of the Coco Levy Scam) offensive to retain private ownership of business interests that were acquired using funds from the Coco Levy Scam.
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In the end (after an unjustifiably long, drawn-out and unnecessarily arduous litigation process) and in light of crystal-clear compelling evidence of the blatant machinations of Danding, Marcos and dummy-entities like the COCOFED (that purports to protect the interests of coconut farmers but does the opposite), the Supreme Court (in October 2012) finally awarded some twenty-four percent (24%) of San Miguel Corp. shares bought by Coco Levy funds (but claimed and, until recently, controlled by Danding Cojuangco) to the Philippine Government for the benefit and use of coconut farmers and the coconut industry. However, the funds (although already awarded by the Supreme Court and then amounting to about P71 billion) remained frozen because its utilization apparently required an Entry of Judgement by . . . (you guessed it) the Supreme Court, which was only issued in December 2014.
Why pray tell does the Entry of Judgement follow more than two years after the final decision of the Supreme Court? As Randy David said before, let’s just appoint Estelito Mendoza (legal counsel extraordinaire to the Who’s Who of Philippine Super Crooks, including Danding Cojuangco and Bobby Ongpin) as the supreme arbiter of the entire Philippine judicial system and do away with the Supreme Court.
In any case, after the Supreme Court’s much-delayed Entry of Judgement, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III (in March 2015) proceeds to issue Executive Order No. 179 (providing the administrative guidelines for the inventory and privatization of coco levy assets) and Executive Order No. 180 (providing the administrative guidelines for the reconveyance and utilization of coco levy assets for the benefit of the coconut farmers and the development of the coconut industry). Shortly thereafter (in June 2015), the Supreme Court (no doubt under the watchful oversight of the Supreme Arbiter, Estelito Mendoza), in response to petitioner COCOFED (dummy of Danding Cojuangco), temporarily stopped the implementation of the two executive orders through a temporary restraining order.
In October 2015, the House of Representatives passed on third reading the Coco Levy Trust Fund Bill, which President Aquino also certified as “URGENT”. Notwithstanding, the Senate has been sitting on the pending “URGENT” Bill. The Chair and Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, which is responsible for the said pending “URGENT” Bill, are Cynthia Villar and Grace Poe, respectively. Villar is a known ally of Danding and Grace Poe’s presidential campaign is funded by Danding. For campaign sorties, Poe borrows the corporate plane of San Miguel, which is essentially controlled by Danding. Poe’s husband, Neil Llamanzares, is employed by San Miguel.
Assuming Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo win the May elections, I am reasonably confident that the Coco Levy Trust Fund Bill will be jointly passed by the House of Representative and the Senate within the year of 2016. On the other hand, if Poe becomes President, I have serious doubts that the same Bill will ever see the light of day.
At this point, Danding (who is at the pre-departure area bound for eternal damnation) just wants to obstruct the utilization of the Coco Levy funds. If he can’t have it, then nobody else will. He has spent more than half of his adult life raping and pillaging coconut farmers, among others, he is not about to stop just because he’s dying. This miserable prick is the patron of Grace Poe, who has essentially prostituted her popularity to the highest bidder . . . like Edgardo Angara and Estelito Mendoza, who have prostituted their legal skills to Danding . . . like all the corrupt government officials in and out of the judicial system who have had a hand in delaying the just and rightful resolution of the Coco Levy Scam over the past forty plus (40+) years . . . like the COCOFED dummy of Danding that pretends to fight for the interest of coconut farmers (but does the opposite).
Grace Poe’s alliance with Danding Cojuangco is itself a statement of what is to be—a disingenuous dummy administration wrought with super crooks that will drag our country to hell. With the Philippine Presidential Elections just around the corner, let’s connect the dots folks. The very soul of our country depends on it.
[Photo courtesy Bulatlat.]
I wonder why Anti Danding hate campaign only comes out during elections. Is there any critic out there be brave enough and be a martyr and do a Taliban ultimate act of self sacrifice for the common good of the farmers and the Filipino People ?
No guts no glory! Be a hero in strife.
Or are the pinoy intellectuals, the articulate and the educated destined to cowardice save their strident noisy tirade on social media ?
When the specter of death is brought right in the doorsteps of the ruling and opposing elite, surely they will go beyond their personal interests and consider the common good paramount. That is what nuclear deterrence is all about.
It was done creatively in EDSA86. That was why Enrile ran terrified to Aguinaldo, made his dying declaration and grudgingly acknowledged Cory as winner of the Snap Election to save himself which later he retracted in his memoirs.
The article is not an anti-danding. It is pro-reality. The guy is a genuine crook and the article simply put on the correct label.
JCC, thanks for telling it like it is. VV
DN, I have been writing about the unresolved crimes of plunder of Marcos and his cronies for many years. The fact that elections is one of the few non-violent means to act upon these unresolved issues, then it makes sense to write about them before elections to remind our readers, lest they forget and vote for someone who would be intent on keeping these unresolved crimes of plunder unresolved (e.g., Bong Bong Marcos would have absolutely no interest whatsoever in returning any more of his family’s ill-gotten fortune, particularly if I becomes vice president) or someone who would be strong-armed into protecting a patron’s interest (e.g., after being supported and funded all the way to the presidency, Poe would have no choice but to do the bidding of Danding Cojuangco and Ramon Ang . . . or else the Supreme Court might flip-flop again and decide to disqualify her).
Am I afraid of retaliation from the likes of Marcos, Danding Cojuangco, Juan Ponce Enrile, ERAP, Binay, among other super crooks in our society I have openly criticized? You better believe I am very afraid. Anyone of these scumbags would not hesitate (and have the wherewithal) to make me disappear from the face of the earth, so I must be content in my modest expression of views through the internet.
Well said and excellently explained, Virtual Vigilante! I couldn’t have expressed it better myself. ????
Simoun, thanks for your effusive reinforcement. So rare to encounter the same wavelength and clear-mindedness. So much noisy fluff out there that counts for squat but gets undue traction.
VOTE for POE = VOTE for DANDING
LRB, TUMPAK! Clear as the light of day.
VV, Danding ran in the 1992 presidential elections so was Imelda and they lost to Tabako.Had Danding and Imelda joined hands, they should have gotten back power.
I believe blood is thicker than water and genes predispose a person to search for her destiny.
A Grace like her biological father who betrayed Marcapagal to run for the 1965 presidency could easily leave her patron like all balimbing politicians for the common good or self preservation. A woman whose mother was raped for her to come into this world and was prophesied ( although prophesies are 50-50 proposition) to come to terms with her father and out to prove that she will be the nemesis of the Catherine the Great copycat[an explanation of the then young 29 yr old press secretary of Marcos rabidity in opposing the her candidacy]. Danding is not even a Marcos and even accused of orchestrating the murder of his first cousin just to being down Marcos.
I do not think a genuine Marcos like Grace would be a dummy to the very person that brought the downfall of her biological father.
DN, to each his own beliefs I suppose. Frankly, I think it’s stupid to vote for someone on the basis of some half-assed urban legend. If Filipinos vote this way, then the Philippines deserves to be swallowed whole by the Pacific Ocean.
That’s easy VV – vote for the right person with political will.
Duterte, Cayetano vow to distribute coco levy fund in a month if elected
Duterte’s camp earlier called Sen. Grace Poe, who is also seeking the presidency, a “puppet” for supposedly defending businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. over the controversial coco levy issue.
…
Cayetano said he and Duterte would push for “bold solutions” to reverse the administration’s supposed “privatization plan” by converting the coco levy assets into stakeholders-shareholders-state equity partnership and to use the funds to create village-level farm-based processing industries.
… then you’ll find out if this just another dud.
Zaxx, I would have to politely decline, even though I actually considered voting for Duterte before he started to reveal his true nature to the public. There are many reasons Duterte should not even be in the running for the President of the Philippines but the latest fiasco on the rape of the Australian lay minister takes the cake.
It’s crass, beneath low class . . . hayop talaga! The old and worn-out excuse that Duterte is the “raw candidate of the masses” engaged in “gutter talk” just doesn’t cut it. In the course of the past two months of scrutiny, Duterte shouts-out all the telltale signs of a disastrous presidency. In spite of this, he appears to be at the top of the surveys, which is thoroughly alarming!
Who would have thought I would ever agree with a point of view of Binay?
“Your statement is simply revolting. Nothing can justify such callous remarks,” his statement continued. “Nanghinayang ka na hindi mo na-rape ang Australian lay minister. Pinagyabang mo na minolestya mo ang inyong kasambahay. You are a crazy maniac who doesn’t respect women and doesn’t deserve to be president,” he added.
(You feel it’s a waste that you did not rape the Australian lay minister. You are proud that you molested your household help. You are a crazy maniac who doesn’t respect women and doesn’t deserve to be president.) (Source: Rappler)
If it has come to the point that the Filipino voter would elect a gutter rat as the leader of the country (or, for that matter, elect Bong Bong Marcos as the Vice President), then it’s time to pack-up and leave (for those who can) or simply disengage, for it is the time that the Filipino would have lost his soul and is no longer worth caring for.
VV, why not? If a gutter rat is the only one that can chew away the net to free the lion – why not?
If you want your valued coco levy funds to see the light of day – will you choose Danding-puppet Poe or no-strings-attached Du30? Study past elections and you will see for yourself it always boils down to the TOP TWO on the surveys. Mar can only get into Malacanang if he can pull off a people power revolution.
I think it’s Time to remove that Oculus Rift your wearing and get back to reality Virtual.
Zaxx, the problem with this gutter rat is that he is also a lying stooge. He will only address low-level criminality but will leave the big fish alone. I reiterate my earlier thoughts on Duterte below for the benefit of other readers:
I would have voted Duterte for President in 2016 based on the fantasy of Duterte, which, unfortunately, turned out to be just that—a fantasy. In our desperation as a nation for a quick-fix, Duterte represented anti-crime, peace and order, anti-graft and corruption, swift justice.
Under Duterte, I was sure that the likes of JPE, Gigi Reyes, Jinggoy, Bong Revilla, GMA, Napoles, the Ampatuans, the Binays, the Marcoses, among others, would rot in prison until the death penalty was reinstated—after which they would all be hanged for plunder. I was even OK with the notion of being caught in the cross-fire—a casualty of war, if you will, in the context of Duterte’s aggressive campaign against crime. A few innocent lives, including my own, were worth sacrificing, as long as the criminals (and I mean low-level and high-level criminals) were substantially wiped-out pronto. Then he started to reveal himself . . . and he imploded. The Legend of Duterte quickly morphed into Duterte, Your Worst Nightmare!
“Duterte bats for hero’s burial for FM, house arrest for GMA.” There goes the anti-graft and corruption campaign. Under Duterte, Filipinos will be choked on lies and denied justice for the nth time. I’m sorry but I cannot possibly support—much less sacrifice myself—to a coddler of super-crooks and plunderers.
“If the Comelec were to disqualify him from the presidential race, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said he will support Vice President Jejomar Binay.” That’s just unacceptable. It goes to show that Duterte’s anti-graft and corruption stance is an outright lie. Sinungaling siya.
Bingo Soriano’s open Christmas letter to Mar Roxas dated December 25, 2015 hit the nail on the head when he characterized Duterte as a “bully” who imposes himself on the weak but sucks-up to the powerful. In other words, Duterte is no better than a low-level ass-licking political hoodlum.
“Duterte wants Algebra, Calculus, Trigonometry replaced with Business Math.” What kind of moronic idea is that? It appears Duterte has done well for Davao City. As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Let’s keep Duterte in Davao.
The truth is out. Binay is a plunderer, Duterte is gutter rat, Poe is a puppet and Mar is suplado. I say again, the choice is clear!
Well VV, I’ll respect your decision on wasting your vote on a clear loser (4th on survey) – but don’t say you weren’t warned.
Yes I’ve read your previous article. You can stick to your guns (or flying knives), and I’ll stick to my light saber.
DU30 may have chickened out with respect to some big fish, but if he can clean up even 50% of criminality and corruption in this country – that will be an achievement of a lifetime.
At least we agree that Poe is a big NO NO. How ’bout a toast to that?
Even the richest of brands/people are robbed by poor character.
D Forsaken, I don’t disagree with your statement. It so happens Duterte the Gutter Rat also has a rotten core/character and while this may sound shallow, Duterte is downright unpresidentiable. He is already a terrible source of embarrassment to the Filipino people in the international community and he’s not even the president yet. Just imagine how much more humiliation he will bring upon Juan De La Cruz if becomes the Gutter Rat leader of the country.
All of them are crooks; including Aquino, who is the most crooked of all of them.
Marcos era is gone; we have new breeds of crooks in the Aquino era. Aquino, Abad, Abaya, Mar Roxas, Porky Drilon, etc…DAP, PDAF, Pork Barrel bribery and thievery, missing Typhoon Yolanda Relief Funds, etc…
Aquino must implement the Land Reform Program; which he is placing in the back burner, to protect his Hacienda Luisita. Aquino did executive orders on Coco Levy. Aquino did nothing on Land Reform, that could lead to our self sufficiency of rice.
However, Aquino’s Chinese Filipino cahoots, are profiting and enriching themselves on rice smuggling, and importation/manipulation of the price of rice.
We have been self sufficient in rice, during the Marcos era.
Coconut is not widely used worldwide…coconut oil is rarely used. Olive Oil is the one that is mostly used for cooking worldwide…
Toro, I happen to agree regarding Hacienda Luisita, which was only subjected to land reform (as in the kind that actually distributes land to farmers) at the last minute before the law expired. Justice delayed is justice denied. And the Cojuangco branch of P-Noy made out like a bandit for decades while all the other truly middle-class rice farmers were bullied into submission by the government. If you’ve ever been to the Open Estate in Negros, it’s been “distributed” to the farmers but is actually still controlled by Danding in the guise of some cooperative. And there lies the difference between P-Noy and the like of Danding and Marcos (who has tons more ill-gotten wealth to return to the National coffers). In the case of the former, it’s justice delayed; in the case of the latter, it’s injustice perpetrated in perpetuity. And there are a multitude of idiots out there who can’t distinguish and keep bashing P-Noy when they really ought to be bashing Marcos, Danding, Enrile, among the other super crooks of the Philippines.
VV, why don’t you criticise BS Aquino for awarding the 63 billion pesos MRT-7 to San Miguel ?
Kari, I don’t know much about MRT 7 or if it was inappropriately awarded to San Miguel. If you know something we should know, then please share with our readers so we can learn from you. Otherwise, your question comes across like, “Why aren’t you criticizing Juan De La Cruz for drinking San Miguel beer?”
Poe is a big NO NO! That’s a good start. Here’s another incident worth contemplating if you still think the Gutter Rat is worthy to be president:
“Sir, I am Filipino working here in Australia. Many of us OFWs who work for the same company live in a company-provided apartment complex here and there’s a group of around 10-15 OFWs from Mindanao who are rabid Duterte supporters, they are very mayabang and even bullied another OFW who openly said that he is against Duterte, they hang Duterte posters over the railings and wear Duterte shirts all the time, but when Duterte’s bad-mouthing the Australian rape victim reached here, the Duterte fans removed their posters and stopped their noisy gatherings but its too late – the owner of the company we’re working for is a very devout Christian and she felt insulted by Duterte’s comments against her fellow Aussie, our supervisor already told us today that the contracts of all of us 50 Filipino workers will no longer be renewed, that we will be replaced by Pacific Islanders. Sampu lang yung mga Duterte fans sa grupo namin pero damay kami lahat dahil sa kabastusan ng iniidolo nila. I earn 80,000 pesos equivalent dito at 3 kapatid pinapa-aral ko diyan sa Pilipinas.”
VV, That’s one big slap on the face for those die-hard Duterfans.
Can you at least let us know who wrote it so we can make sure it was not just made up?
Granted it’s true, my comments are:
1. Aussies should at least acknowledge the complement portion of the mayor’s narrative: Australian women are attractive/beautiful – like Hollywood actresses.
2. OFWs forced to return to their homeland? Well and good – so many people here are protesting the continuous brain drain. A Duterte presidency might actually force Pinoys to stand on their own 2 feet.
Here are the ways Duterte has disgracedcthe Filipino. . . and he’s not yet the president.
Latest foreign media pick-ups:
Washington Post: Leading Philippines presidential contender: Gang rape victim ‘so beautiful’ he wishes he had ‘been first’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/18/leading-philippines-presidential-contender-gang-rape-victim-so-beautiful-he-wishes-he-had-been-first/
Washington Post: Philippine presidential front-runner’s rape remark condemned (AP)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/australia-upset-by-philippine-candidates-rape-remark/2016/04/18/9599365e-053b-11e6-bfed-ef65dff5970d_story.html
New York Times: Philippine Presidential Front-Runner’s Rape Remark Condemned
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/04/18/world/asia/ap-as-philippines-australia-rape-remark.html?_r=0
Bloomberg: Philippine Presidential Hopeful Won’t Apologize for Rape Remarks
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-18/philippine-presidential-hopeful-won-t-apologize-for-rape-remarks
Reuters: Philippine frontrunner hits back as rape remark sparks fury
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-philippines-election-idUKKCN0XE0ZW
Deutsche Welle: Filipino presidential candidate Duterte condemned after rape joke (AFP)
http://www.dw.com/en/filipino-presidential-candidate-duterte-condemned-after-rape-joke/a-19194252