Sandiganbayan to hear UCPB, Cocolife over ownership of CIIF assets

The Sandiganbayan has ordered another hearing on the coco levy case as it has to first hear the contentions of the affected parties in connection with the government's appeal for a partial execution to give farmers ownership over the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) assets.

In a 19-page resolution promulgated on December 29, 2017 and made available to reporters on Sunday, the Sandiganbayan set another hearing on the matter for January 29.

According to the resolution, the Sandiganbayan Second Division said it needed to hear the assertions of the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and the Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corporation (Cocolife).

The Sandiganbayan said the hearing will be "to enable the parties, including UCPB and Cocolife to define and clarify their respective legal dispositions on the applicability and/or relevance of the COCOFED Decision in resolving the Motion for Partial Execution."

This comes as both UCPB and Cocolife earlier filed a plea seeking the reversal of the court's ruling against their claim of ownership of part of San Miguel Corporation's (SMC) shares which were earlier declared as government property.

The Supreme Court earlier ruled the shares as government property, as they were acquired using coco levy funds which largely came from taxes collected from coconut farmers during martial law.

"[O]n the varied contentions raised by the parties, it is prudent to give the parties the opportunity to expound on their respective positions..." the Sandiganbayan said. — BM, GMA News