“We cannot condole with the death of haciendero and crony Eduardo Danding Cojuangco Jr. as the Ph105-billion coco levy fund remain unreturned and unremitted to its intended beneficiaries — small coconut farmers and their families.

“Patay na si Danding Cojuangco Jr., hindi pa naibabalik sa mga magsasaka ng niyog ng pondo ng coco levy na dinambong ng mga promotor ng coco levy fund scam,” Ramos said.

Throughout the past regimes, landlord and business tycoon Danding was able to amass great wealth, power, and influence after plundering the coco levy fund collected from small coconut farmers during Martial Law. He acquired San Miguel Corporation (SMC) using the coco levy fund and through enabling the fascist Marcos dictatorship,” says Danilo Ramos, chairperson of KMP.

Danding who was also tagged as “The Kingmaker” is a known Marcos crony. Ousted President Joseph Estrada labeled Danding as “Father of Land Reform” after the first extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in 1998. It was then that Danding’s 4,661-hectare landholding in Negros Occidental spanning two cities and seven towns were exempted from actual land distribution through a joint agribusiness venture between the ECJ Corporation and 1,200 Certificate of Land Ownership Award holders. Danding’s SMC is also the primary initiator of flexible labor policies in the country that promoted contractual labor and laid off tens of thousands of workers across SMC companies.

“What we really want to say is good riddance. Danding Cojuangco Jr. is the embodiment of the landlord-comprador ruling class who have enriched and empowered themselves through exploiting the Filipino masses, especially workers and farmers,” Ramos concluded. ###

[Image from Philippine Star]