Use your "coconut"

CONSUMER'S DEMAND
Herman Tiu Laurel
7/11-17/2011



The recent Supreme Court (SC) ruling granting Danding Cojuangco “legitimate” ownership of 45 percent of that 47-percent share (or 20 percent, in total) of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), worth around P70 billion, does nothing to negate the fact that Cojuangco sourced the money for “his” shares from UCPB (United Coconut Planters Bank), the bank set up with “coconut levy” funds.

The market value of SMC, the country’s second largest corporation, is valued at $8 billion, with shares sourced from the funds of the coconut levy constituting around 47 percent of the conglomerate.

Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile supports Cojuangco’s claim saying “The 20 percent was bought by Danding and they borrowed money from the United Coconut Planters Bank.

“Where that money came from, I do not know because when the bank lends money, it does not identify the money that is used for lending.” That’s technical gibberish.

Enrile, like Ed Angara, Frank Drilon, and the late Raul Roco of the ACCRA Law office then, facilitated Cojuangco’s channeling of the coco levy funds to his projects

Never Brought to Trial
What Filipinos have not been made aware of is the fact that the Cojuangco coco levy issue was never brought to trial and subjected to a bona fide examination of facts.

What the SC decision dealt with were only questions of law and a debate on definitions.  The funding from the coconut farmers’ coco levy of UCPB as well as the use of Cojuangco’s political clout to launder this and place it under his name, stripping the fund of its original purpose, all didn’t matter.

As the multibillion litigation stretched over 25 years, the coconut industry has starved for investment and funds for expanding and developing the country’s coconut stock in all that time.

Here, the fundamental issue is a moral one: How can one man cause so much deprivation on an industry that 25 million Filipinos depend on?  Thus, the struggle for justice isn’t over.

Coconut farmers and citizens are escalating the fight to media as we speak.

Coco Shaving
Last July 6, scores of coconut farmers from all over the country converged on the Quezon Memorial Circle’s Coconut House to infuse new blood into a continuing protest movement.

It kicked off with a “coconut shaving,” or a head-shaving in front of the country’s media, which I will also do to myself on my Global News Network program on July 12 with other coconut farmers, including female coconut leaders like Ka Cita Esmao, while discussing the coco levy issue.

The move is symbolic of the nation’s protest against such blatant greed and conspiracy by different factions of the ruling class at the expense of millions of Filipinos.

It would thus do our 95 million Filipinos good if they could sharpen their insights and use their “coconuts” in crystallizing the main issue that bedevils the life and progress of this nation -- the injustice, abuse, and exploitation of the present ruling class.

Beyond this, Filipinos, too, must become aware of their power as consumers and literally use their coconuts in fighting off the oligarchs to save our national economy.

‘Buko’ Power
Value-wise, Philippine coconut exports, amounting to 900,000 tons a year, could reach $1.5 billion at today’s world market prices.

But with conscious and deliberate promotion of the local use of the coconut’s abundant nutriceutical, pharmaceutical and industrial properties, its economic value could increase by at least fivefold.

Take for instance the so-called “sports drinks” available in the market.

If you’re still one of those gulping down such known brands as Gatorade or Powerade, thinking that you’re doing your health a favor, think again.

You are merely being taken for a ride by the advertising industry and its corporate clients who all peddle such drinks containing “junk ingredients including high fructose corn syrup, artificial dyes, and some other things” as one sports evaluator said.

Like Big Pharma’s fraudulent vaccine and drugs claims, these sports drinks are similar frauds slowly being exposed in the US.  But how is this related to our coconuts?

Simple. Those major brands are now shifting to the use of coconut water --or buko-- as their main ingredient.


Powerade’s maker, Coca-Cola, is now sourcing coconut water from Quezon and setting up a plant in Mindanao, following a similar move by Pepsi-Cola’s Gatorade.

Evidently, these two giants are tapping the desiccated coconut plants that used to just discard coconut water after extracting meat and oil from coconuts.

Still, these plants consume only 10 percent of the total coconuts produced in the country.

Boost to Economy
Filipino consumers should thus quit paying up to P30 for such sports drinks and just take to natural buko straight from the nut.  It’ll go a long way in boosting the national economy.

My household consumes at least 20 coconuts a week, which I buy from my Mandaluyong suki for P17 each.  Elsewhere, I know they’re around P20 to P25 a piece.  You can easily arrange with the many neighborhood vendors to deliver them right to your doorstep.

Last time I visited “the best SC Chief Justice this country never had (yet),” Law Professor Alan Paguia, I overheard his wife Pilar mentioning an anti-dandruff brand they were going to buy.

I sprang from my seat and told them to use virgin coconut oil (VCO) instead, which worked wonders for my scalp a decade ago.

Aside from not having that dandruff problem ever since, I still have jet black hair for the most part at my not-so-young age (60) even as the rest of my nine siblings are already dying theirs.  One pure VCO brand, Nature’s Gift, is the cheapest so far.  It costs 25 percent less than other brands and is found mainly in Chinese drugstores.

Dairy Substitute
What’s more? VCO is still one of the best options for overall health, weight loss, IRS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), candida, thyroid problems, aching joints, diabetes, and a host of other health issues.  Why, I even cured my warts, which had been growing around my neck and shoulders, with it.

 And, lest we forget, coconuts are an abundant source of milk.  With over 300 million coconut trees --every 20 trees of which can equal a cow’s annual milk production -- we can end the $1-billion importation of dairy products from other countries and save valuable foreign currency.

On the industrial front, coconut charcoal is still the unequalled filter medium while coconut coir is still the required material by markets such as China for their 100 million mattresses produced each year.

Re-Green
Meanwhile, coconut fiber is now the choice material for geo-textiles to help prevent soil erosion as well as reclaim and re-green “desertified” areas.

Finally, the use of coconut oil-based detergents and personal care products will not only help our coconut industry and the national economy, but will greatly reduce the chemical pollution that causes many of our society’s health and social problems.

Government leadership, for perfecting such technologies, same with quality upgrade and marketing of these coconut products, will definitely boost every Filipino’s economic prospects.

Next time you reach out for a thirst quencher after a round of badminton or basketball, try looking for fresh buko from your neighborhood vendor instead of a commercial brand.

If there’s none around, make sure you talk to the one you see making his route nearest you to pass by your sports center or home.  That creates the ripple that will reverberate through the entire economy.
Do your part and use your coconut.

(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Heads Up for Coconut Farmers”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus select radio and GNN shows)