Marcos to reorganize sugar regulatory body

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Senate set to probe import order mess

PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday said he is reorganizing the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) as his government looks at ways to reduce sugar prices and ensure its supply.

“We are going to reorganize the SRA… that should be done this week, before the end of this week,” the President said at the sidelines of the PinasLakas vaccination event at the SM City Manila.

Once the reorganization is completed, Marcos said, he will continue to talk with sugar industry stakeholders and come up with ways to address the sugar problem, including the possibility of importation.

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“We will come to an arrangement with the industrial consumers, with the planters, the millers, suppliers of the sugar to coordinate, to know what we have, what is available and what can be made available in the market,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.

Asked about the P100 per kilo price of sugar in the market, the President said it is high, which is why the government has been negotiating with traders to lower it to at least P70 a kilo.

Marcos said the industry players were willing to lower the prices to P80 a kilo but he wants it to an even lower amount, at P70 a kilo. “And we’re getting there,” he said.

The SRA reorganization follows Marcos’ rejection of the agency’s order allowing the importation of some 300,000 tons of sugar. Malacañang last week said Marcos did not authorize the importation. Three of the signatories in the importation order have resigned.

The Senate is Blue Ribbon Committee will conduct an inquiry into the issuance of Sugar Order No. 4.

At the House, a formal investigation is being sought. The committees on good government and public accountability and on agriculture which held a meeting on Monday to look into the controversy, wanted to conduct a motu proprio inquiry but had to put it on hold pending clarification from the committee on rules.

The President, at the vaccination event, also said he is leaving investigations on the sugar importation issue to Congress but Press Secretary Trixie Angeles later clarified that the Palace probe will continue.

Marcos emphasized the urgency of addressing the problems hounding the industry to avert a shortage, which may affect local sugar and food industry workers.

The President said the soda industry, which also depends on sugar, is already affected by the sugar supply issues, and has started to reduce their working days, which affected the livelihood of their employees. He said he is “very worried of course about jobs.”

Marcos Jr. said if the supply is really insufficient, the country has no choice but to import the supply.

He previously rejected an order by the SRA authorizing the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar. The order was even branded by Malacañang as “illegal” after it was signed on behalf of the President despite his lack of a go signal.

Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian, who signed the order on behalf of the President, and SRA Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica have resigned while SRA board member Roland Beltran said he resigned for health reasons.

Marcos Jr., in a vlog over the weekend, said there is enough supply of sugar until October and importation may be considered then but only for about 150,000 metric tons.

But Sebastian, at the House meeting last Monday, said current supply was “projected to run out in August 2022 this month.”

SENATE PROBE

Sen. Francis Tolentino said the Blue Ribbon committee which he chairs, has set a hearing for August 23.

Tolentino said the committee hearings will not turn into a political circus and will not be unending as he encouraged members of the panel to follow a road map.

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“We will not evolve into a political circus. We will not go into unending hearings. We will respect the rights of the witnesses. We will respect the rights of the resource persons.

Bearing in mind that we have a constitutional duty to fulfill and that is to prevent abuses, to pass proper legislation but with a known standard of proof,” Tolentino said.

He reminded the panel members not to quickly pass judgment on resource persons since their liabilities are better be decided by the courts as “we will not be here to witch hunt” as their job is to gather and uncover the truth.

Also, Tolentino named Melchor Arthur Carandang, a former overall deputy ombudsman, as senior legal consultant of the committee; and Gerard Mosquera, as general legal counsel.

Carandang led the investigation on the alleged P728-million fertilizer fund scam under the Arroyo administration. He was fired after he reportedly breached confidentiality when he issued statements on the investigation on former President Duterte’s alleged bank deposits exposed by then Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

Mosquera was commissioner and head of the Litigation Department of the Presidential Commission on Good Government from October 2010 to May 2012.

HOUSE INQUIRY

At the House, minority leader Marcelino Libanan filed House Resolution No. 259 urging the committees on good government and public accountability and on agriculture to look into the import order controversy because the joint panel has yet to formally turn the briefing into a formal inquiry.

“There is a need to conduct an in-depth investigation on this botched attempt to import sugar to identify all persons who connived with Undersecretary Sebastian for this unauthorized sugar importation order and for them to answer possible criminal charges,” the resolution said.

The joint panel, which adjourned after only more than just an hour last Monday, had voted to turn the next hearing into a motu proprio inquiry in aid of legislation but Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. Reminded the chairmen that such a move may pose legal questions since House panels can only do so seven days after the House rules are published.

Since motu proprio action can be done not only upon the majority vote of all members but also with the approval of the committee on rules, the joint panel had to hold a briefing to avoid technicalities pending clarification from the committee on rile before deciding if an inquiry can be formally next meeting.

This was the reason the joint panel had to cancel the resumption of the briefing today and move it to Monday next week.

Libanan, in his resolution, also called on the government to formulate a clear-cut policy on importation not just for sugar but for all agricultural products to avoid the unnecessary burden and prejudice to small Filipino farmers and producers.

‘SWEET SPOT’

Deputy speaker Ralph Recto of Batangas said the government has to find the “sweet spot” in determining the right volume of sugar imports that will both protect producers and consumers by basing it on science and insulating the process from lobbying and politics.

Recto said sugar demand and supply forecast should be subjected to outside review “and not by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) and the Department of Agriculture alone.”

“Multi-agency dapat. Is NEDA (National Economic Development Authority), for example, on board in determining production and consumption outlook?” Recto said, adding that subjecting sugar data to third party vetting “will not only strengthen the integrity of projections made, but will hush down unfair claims of data manipulation.”

The former senator proposed that a group of experts from the academe “take a second look at our food import projections, not just on sugar, but on all commodities, so that we will not be importing more than what is needed.”

Under Section 9 of Republic Act 10659, or the Sugarcane Industry Development Act of 2015, the SRA is mandated to establish a “supply chain monitoring system” that will track volume of “sugarcane at farms to refined sugar at stores.”

To ensure sufficiency of supply, SRA’s monitoring covers registered firms from distilleries that use sugarcane, to warehouses of sugar importers, to sugar stockpiles of food processors.

Recto said “one foundation of any commodity outlook is the projected demand” as this is used as basis for import plans.

The administration lawmaker recalled “instances in the past when the computation of the annual per capita consumption of rice was allegedly inflated to justify jacking up import volume.”

“As a general rule, para sa isang food importer tulad ng Pilipinas, kailangan maingat sa mga datos, kasi mas masahol pa sa price manipulation ang data manipulation (to a food importer loke the Philippines, we have to be careful iwith the data” because data manipulation is even worse than price manipulation), he said. — With Raymond Africa and Wendell Vigilia

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