Senator Risa Hontiveros said that instead of selling seized sugar in Kadiwa stores, it is more favorable to turn it over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development for the benefit of the less fortunate and victims of calamities.
“Instead of rotting or selling it to make more money, why not just give it for free to our fellow citizens who are in need and victims of calamities? There are many who are hungry and hardup because of the high price of goods,” Hontiveros said.
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) recently announced that it has revised existing regulations to authorize the sale of at least 4,000 metric tons of smuggled refined sugar in Kadiwa stores around the country.
The sugar stocks, which were earlier confiscated in joint Bureau of Customs and Department of Agriculture operations, will be sold to consumers at P70 per kilo, it said.
Instead of relying on smuggled sugar to supply Kadiwa stores, Hontiveros said that the Sugar Regulatory Administration needs only to expand the list of traders and industries authorized to procure their own sugar supplies.
She said the right to import sugar should not be limited to three “favored” suppliers: All Asian Countertrade Inc, Edison Lee Marketing Corporation, and Sucden Philippines.
There should also be an expanded list of traders and industries that will be allowed to import the 450,000 metric tons that the SRA wants to bring into the country. As in previous years, these will then compete to offer the lowest price to the market, in contrast to the prospect of high cartel-dictated prices, she said.
She also said the DA and SRA could also expand their cooperation with stakeholders in the local sugar industry, so that production yields can be increased even during the ongoing milling season for sugar.*