Panelo gets new government post

MANILA, Philippines - Lawyer Salvador Panelo will no longer be the spokesperson for president-elect Rodrigo Duterte as he was appointed chief presidential legal counsel.

Duterte directed Panelo to review the coco levy case and appointed former pastor Ernesto Abella as presidential spokesperson.

“That was always been the plan. I was only serving as temporary spokesperson,” Panelo said.

He said Duterte had a hard time looking for the right person to serve as his mouthpiece, resulting in his temporary appointment as spokesperson.

He, however, clarified that he knew of Duterte’s desire to appoint him as presidential legal counsel.

“That has been my position all along and my being presidential spokesman was temporary as he announced and explained to the Cabinet,” Panelo said.

“But I will still be speaking on his behalf on very important issues.”

Initially introduced by Panelo as his deputy earlier this week, Abella formally assumed the role as Duterte’s spokesperson following a Cabinet meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on Wednesday night.

Abella arrived with incoming Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) secretary Martin Andanar at a short media briefing following the Cabinet meeting.

Andanar explained the structure of the communications group under the Duterte administration.

He said they would retain the PCOO, the office handling the state-owned media entities, although he intends to change the name to Presidential Communications Office.

Abella will head the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson. He is the founder of Southpoint School in Davao and the religious group The Jesus Fellowship Inc. and  is an instructor at Ateneo de Davao College. He also wrote for the San Pedro Express, edited by the late poet Alfrredo Navarro Salanga, in the late 1970s.

“We are subsuming the function of undersecretary Manolo Quezon,” Andanar said, referring to the current head of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office.

Coco levy fund ordered released

Duterte has ordered the release of the multibillion-peso coconut levy funds to farmers, incoming agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol said yesterday.

The coco levy funds, amounting to over P70 billion, were taxes collected from coconut farmers as provided by Presidential Decree 755 signed in 1975.

The taxes were supposed to be used for projects meant to benefit coconut farmers, but were instead used to buy a huge percentage in shares of the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) under businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.

Piñol said Duterte issued the order after his request to make a policy statement on the coconut levy funds due to queries from stakeholders on the issue.

“I am directing Panelo to look into this matter and make sure that the coconut levy funds are released to the farmers,” Duterte said during the Cabinet meeting.

Piñol said the agencies tasked to handle the coco levy funds would still study how the funds would be distributed.

“I informed president Duterte that I have talked to officials of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) for a six-year coconut planting program covering 600,000 hectares,” he said.

Piñol said the PCA officials assured him that its stakeholders are capable of producing sufficient planting materials.

Under a project proposal dubbed Coconut Productivity and Rehabilitation Agenda (COPRA) and drafted by Piñol, the massive coconut replanting aims to regain the country’s status as the top coconut producer in the world.

“With the expected release of the coconut levy funds to the real owners and the start of the massive national coconut planting program, the coconut industry is expected to regain its reputation as one of the biggest foreign exchange earners for the country,” he said.  – With Alexis Romero, Louise Maureen Simeon