PRESIDENT Marcos offered no objection to import sugar when concerned government officials held a meeting in Malacañang on the matter last August 1.
This was disclosed yesterday by former agriculture undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian and former Sugar Regulatory Administration administrator Hermenegildo Serafica as the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee held its second hearing on the proposed sugar importation which the Palace said has been rejected by President Marcos Jr. Malacañang also tagged the import order “illegal.”
Sebastian and Serafica resigned after Marcos’ rejection of the Sugar Order No. 4 which would have allowed the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar.
Sebastian, on the questioning of Sen. Risa Hontiveros, said that at the end of a meeting of the Department of Agriculture on August 1, the President did not object to the recommendation to import 300,000 MT of sugar due to “the sugar shortage” as shown by the rising price of sugar.
In the meeting were Marcos who is concurrent agriculture secretary, Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez, agriculture undersecretary for policy and planning Mercy Sombilla, then-SRA administrator Serafica, and Philippine Coconut Authority administrator Benjie Madrigal.
“There were two things that the President want to act (on) fast, your honor, which he expressed during that (August 1) meeting. That is, one, redirect classification, we have to do it as soon as possible, reclassification from reserved to domestic use of sugar. Second, the need to augment our local supplies through importation.”
Hontiveros asked if that was “explicitly” said by Marcos.
Sebastian replied, “Yes, your honor. That was one of the parts of the briefing SRA administrator gave and also the President agreed there’s need to consider that. In fact, Administrator Serafica was given instruction to start preparing a sugar importation program, your honor.”
Sebastian said “there were no objections to the importation program, you honor, or any reservations” coming from Rodriguez.
He said he and Serafica were confident that the recommendation to import sugar will push through since common sense dictates that “if you are instructed to draft the sugar importation program, that means they are aware that there’s an importation that has been planned.”
Sebastian said he personally informed the President that the SRA board approved the importation of 300,000 MT of sugar via a referendum” but was surprised that Marcos “disapproved my action and the Board’s approval of Sugar Order No. 4” and was instructed “that we should recall the order.”
Malacañang earlier said that it learned of SO4 through the SRA website.
“I informed the President that we have already approved the 300,000 MT sugar importation and just like in my affidavit, I was surprised that he was not in agreement, your honor,” he added.
Sebastian also said he is on a 90-day preventive suspension as Marcos has not yet accepted his resignation.
Angeles, in a briefing, said Sebastian is under preventive suspension and he has resigned only from the DA and not from whole government.
IMPORT PLAN
For his part, Serafica said he was ordered by the President to submit an importation plan after the meeting in Malacañang last August 1 “after presenting to the President and everyone in that meeting the challenges in the sugar industry and the recommended courses of action.”
“In that instant, after everything was discussed, the President said to submit an importation plan,” Serafica said, adding that “there was no volume talked about” that time.
He said Rodriguez was apparently open to the importation as the executive secretary did not object that time.
Serafica said they had a series of meetings with stakeholders from July 29 to August 3, after which the stakeholders also did not object to importation of sugar.
“Actually, almost all of them recommended 300,000 MT volume to be imported,” he said, adding that the stakeholders came up with the 300,000 MT volume to be imported based on the projected sugar supply deficit by the end of August and other available data on the country’s sugar consumption.
Based on records, he said, only one stakeholder, Del Max Trading, disagreed on the planned importation volume since it recommended “a slightly lesser amount of 250,000 MT.”
Hontiveros said Malacañang has made confusing statements as to the sugar importation issue.
“Why the subterfuge, nalaman ba talaga sa website lang o sinabi personally? Why send signals na pabor sa importasyon, hindi nag-object then babawiin pala despite the fact of this near unanimity among stakeholders based doon sa sinabi ni Mr. Serafica na facts from SRA (Why the subterfuge, did they learn about it on the website or was it personally relayed? Why send signals that they are in favor of importation but later took it back despite the near unanimity among stakeholders based on facts from the SRA as stated by Mr. Serafica),” Hontiveros said.
RODRIGUEZ ABSENT
There was no reaction from Malacañang on the statements of Sebastian and Serafica but it explained Rodriguez’ absence from the Senate hearing. Press Secretary Trixie Cruz Angeles said Rodriguez attended yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.
Sen. Francis Tolentino said Rodriguez was invited to attend yesterday’s hearing but begged off as there was a scheduled Cabinet meeting in Malacañang the same time the committee hearing was being held.
Last week, Rodriguez attended the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing but left immediately after he presented the timeline on Sugar Order No. 4, which did not give senators a chance to ask questions for him.
On August 5, Rodriguez said he received a draft of SO4 from Serafica along with a memorandum recommending the order from Sebastian.
Two days later, he said, Sebastian sent him text messages asking if Marcos has already made a decision on the planned sugar importation. Rodriguez said he “purposely” did not reply because the President still had to respond.
Rodriguez said it was only on August 10 that they learned that Sebastian already signed SO4 on behalf of acting Marcos as agriculture secretary.
In the same hearing last week, Sebastian said he acted on SO4 based on a memorandum issued by Rodriguez dated July 15, 2022 which gave him authority to sign contracts for the Department of Agriculture.
Rodriguez said he confronted Sebastian regarding the matter.
“I confronted Sebastian and asked him why he did such a thing behind the President’s back… (He) did it without the President’s knowledge and in an unfair and dishonorable way.”
WAREHOUSE VISIT
Angeles said Malacañang would refrain from commenting on ongoing investigations and inspection of warehouses that are used to store sugar pending investigations.
The Philippine Sugar Millers Association said Malacañang is being misled into thinking that there is a sugar supply shortage.
“We will wait for the results of the investigations and will not comment or respond to what is happening while the investigations are ongoing,” she said in Filipino.
The government led by the Bureau of Customs and the SRA have been conducting inspections of warehouses on suspicion of sugar smuggling and hoarding. The inspections have led to the seizure of some 500,0000 sacks of sugar. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
