The farmers and farm workers of coconut land who are registered in the National Coconut Farmers Registry System in Castilla, Sorsogon recently received their benefits from the Philippine Coconut Authority part of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act or the Coco Levy Act.
The more than 2 million registered in the master list is to benefit the 100 billion coco levy fund taken unjustly from the coconut farmers during the time of Ferdinand Marcos from 1971 to 1983.
The release to the local beneficiaries was undertaken by the town Municipal Agriculture Office which was lauded by Mayor Isagani Mendoza as timely in this time of economic crisis as the majority of the members of the group are marginalize.
I will continue to support the plight of the coconut farmers and farmworkers. We cannot ignore them. Their efforts help revive the local economy, the least we can do to them is for our agriculture office to extend technical support and render other services to enhance productivity of the industry he added.