Government should come up with an alternative course of action that will address sugar supply after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. rejected the importation of 300,000 metric tons of refined and raw sugar, stakeholders said yesterday.
The call was made on the heels of the resignation last August 11 of Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary for operations Leocadio Sebastian who allegedly signed Sugar Order (SO) 4 for the importation on behalf of President Marcos.
Anakpawis said the issue surrounding SO 4 is a demonstration of “disunity” and absence of clear policy thrust in addressing the current sugar supply crisis.
“…This is clear failure in organizational communication and this is a serious blunder, involving the Office of the President and concerning a significant sector in the national economy,” said Ariel Casilao, Anakpawis national president, in a statement.
Casilao said government must resolve deeper problems in the sector especially with the elevated price of fertilizers.
Anakpawis also supported the calls of Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) and other sugarcane farmers for the grant of production subsidy particularly for small planters as well as an investigation on cartel-like operations in sugar trading.
UMA called on all Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) officials who signed the SO4 to resign from their posts and follow Sebastian’s lead to ensure they would not influence the ongoing investigation on the SO4 issue.
Aside from Sebastian, the resolution was also signed by SRA administrator Hermenegildo Serafica as vice chairman of the SRA board; Roland Beltran, the millers’ representative to the board; and Aurelio Gerardo Valderrama Jr., the planters’ representative.
The Asociacion de Agricultores de La Carlota y Pontevedra Inc. (AACLPI), the La Carlota Mill District Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LCMDMPC) and the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) welcomed the scrapping of SO4.
“With the start of the milling season, the need to import additional sugar is ill advised… We are thankful that President Marcos vetoed the order as five mills in Negros Occidental have resumed operations,” said David Alba, general manager of both AACLPI and LCMDMPC, in a statement.
Alba said data from the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) showed 4 million bags of sugarentered the country through SO3.
“However, this sugar is not being made available to the Juan De La Cruz since there are in the bodegas of the industrial users, the sector that is obviously given preferential treatment by SRA…,” Alba said.
He said supply must instead be released to consumers and retailers.
In a separate statement, Manuel Lamata, president of UNIFED, said they also join the calls on a revamp of DA and SRA personnel.
