CIIF Group allots money for coconut nurseries

Sequestered CIIF Oil Mills Group said Monday it has allotted P10 million to set up nurseries for coconut seedlings, a nationwide project parallel to government’s planting and replanting program.   The company’s board of directors ordered its managers to establish coconut nurseries in vacant lands that are part of the CIIF Group’s seven oil mills, said CIIF president Jesus Arranza.   The CIIF nurseries complement the Philippine Coconut Authority’s (PCA) national program to replace ageing coconut trees, former Senators Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and Wigberto Tañada, who co-chair the CIIF board of directors, said in a statement.   “The vacant spaces in the plants should be made productive and used as nurseries, and the seedlings can then be re-planted in idle lands owned by the coconut farmers and cooperatives or to replace senile and old trees,” Magsaysay said.   The PCA program materialized after President Benigno Aquino III ordered the agency to raise its planting and replanting budget to P500 million, according to the senators.   A wider and more comprehensive program will be launched by the CIIF Group once the P8 billion in cash dividends that accrued to San Miguel Corp. (SMC) shares are ordered released by the Supreme Court from escrow, according to the senators’ statement.   The money came from taxes of coconut exports and is owned in trust by the Philippine government for coconut farmers, the Sandiganbayan ruled in 2004.   Philippine Commission on Good Government chief Andres Bautista expects that the Supreme Court will soon resolve case and affirm the Sandiganbayan ruling.   Many coconut farmers who paid the coconut levy that was used to buy the CIIF and the San Miguel shares are now in their twilight years, and should be given the opportunity to reap the fruits of the coconut fund, Bautista noted.   A comprehensive program is vital to the coconut industry’s survival, the senators said, adding that copra supply plunged last year that exports of coconut products declined by 40 percent.   Expectations of higher demand for coconut products this year made it imperative for government to raise output through a replanting program, Tañada added.   The CIIF nursery project will be launched in a 2-hectare lot within the Granexport Manufacturing Corp. plant in Iligan City, Arranza said. — VS, GMA News