The government has set up the coco levy asset registry to monitor the status of the assets, including their fruits, acquired through the coconut levy fund, the Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement over the weekend.
The DOF said the Trust Fund Management Committee (TFMC) eyes the asset registry to serve as the repository of information and records of coconut levy assets. The Bureau of the Treasury, as TFMC secretariat, is required to establish the coco levy asset registry.
The registry will contain separate records for both cash and non-cash coco levy assets while further classifying them into those already declared with finality to belong to the government and those continuing to be subject of litigation.
“It is now the task of the TFMC to properly manage the coconut levy trust fund, which is estimated at P75 billion, so that it serves our strategic development goals,” Carlos Dominguez, DOF secretary, said during the first meeting last June 17 of the TFMC.
Required to be regularly updated, the asset registry shall serve as the TFMC’s record of all information related to the coco levy assets, which shall be based on the initial inventory submitted by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).
The PCGG has submitted an initial inventory of coco levy assets to the TFMC estimated to be worth P113.88 billion consisting of cash, shares of stock, holding and trading companies, as well as their subsidiaries.
In its report to the TFMC, the TFMC secretariat highlighted that some of the assets in the PCGG inventory are still under dispute in various courts such as the Sandiganbayan, Supreme Court and the regional trial courts.
The DOF said the TFMC secretariat also reported the position of the PCGG that its initial inventory is “by no means complete.” Based on this report, the TFMC called for continuous updating of the registry.
The implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act (RA) 11524 requires the PCGG to submit to the TFMC periodic reports containing updates on the status of the coco levy assets.
RA 11524 also requires the Commission on Audit to audit the PCGG inventory “to determine the completeness of the PCGG inventory, establish the reasonableness of asset valuation, trace the flow of the coconut levy funds, and to determine compliance with pertinent laws, rules and regulations on the reconveyance of the coconut levy assets.” – Angela Celis
