Coco-Loka: An I-Witness documentary

Can a small-town boy stop the abuse of big-time funds?

Driven by a monster typhoon’s destruction of his native Marinduque’s coconut lands, a local boy now working for a major TV network wages a lonely battle for justice.

GMA researcher Ederic Eder’s mother died at sea while delivering his tuition money so he could enroll at UP. That money came from the sweat of his coconut-farming family.

Now a UP-educated professional, he has been researching for years the fate of coconut levy funds that his family paid to the government. Millions of farmers paid the same levy, which was allegedly stolen and used by Marcos cronies to buy companies, including nearly half of the shares in San Miguel Corporation.

Collaborating with I-Witness reporter Howie Severino, Ederic discovers that the government may be getting set to use nearly two billion pesos from those farmers’ funds for electioneering purposes.

They confront officials with their findings and attempt to prevent a repeat of the fertilizer fund scam of 2004.

This eye-opening episode of I-Witness airs Monday late night on GMA 7, right after Saksi. (GMANews.tv)

Program Manager: Nessa Valdellon
Executive Producer: Ella C. Evangelista
Director: JJ Villamarin
Cinematography: Egay Navarro
Co-Writer/Field Producer: Mavie Almeda