Coconut Calvary: An Inquirer I-Team Special Report

By Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc.

In this three-part special report, originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, i-Team editor Fernando del Mundo delves into the long-simmering controversy over the Philippine coconut levy funds and finds that the coconut farmers intended to be the funds' beneficiaries have been left largely empty-handed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476264400

Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc.

Multi-platform publisher in the Philippines that publishes its most widely circulated newspaper, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and operates the news portal inquirer.net. The Inquirer also publishes its own line of physical and electronic books.

Book preview

Coconut Calvary

An Inquirer i-Team Special Report

Fernando del Mundo

Cover design by Jerito dela Cruz

Cover photo by Delfin T. Mallari Jr

Copyright 2012 Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc.

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Contents

Chapter 1 Free P9-B coco fund, Noy urged

Chapter 2 Farmer sells kidney to redeem family farm

Chapter 3 ‘UCPB doesn’t give loans to those in slippers’

Chapter 1 Free P9-B coco fund, Noy urged

President Aquino had a eureka moment on his last visit to the United States in September last year.

He had a taste of coco water, courtesy of Brazilian businessman Rodrigo Alvarez, whose product had become an instant best seller among American and European fitness buffs.

Mr. Aquino was told that what Filipinos called buko juice had more mineral and potassium than Gatorade, the popular sport drink endorsed by his airness, Michael Jordan.

On his return to Manila, an upbeat President announced that the newly discovered thirst quencher in America could be a savior for impoverished coconut farmers and their families who comprise a quarter of the nation’s almost 100 million population.

Doesn’t it sometimes just go to waste? Who would have thought we could earn from it to uplift the lives of many Filipinos in the provinces, Mr. Aquino said of the coconut water spilled in copra-making.

The President announced that while in New York, he was told