Senator Risa Hontiveros called on the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) on Thursday, March 30, to promptly submit documents sought by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for the investigation into the alleged government-sponsored sugar smuggling.
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee is still waiting for more documents from the SRA before it starts the probe, its chairman Senator Francis Tolentino said on Wednesday.
“I am counting on the commitment of Chair Tolentino to hear the sugar fiasco round two, and I have full faith that he will be as zealous as he was during the first sugar hearings,” Hontiveros said.
Hontiveros is questioning the arrival of imported sugar into the country even before Sugar Order No. 6 allowing the importation was issued.
She said Tolentino can already start the hearings and issue a subpoena duces tecum for the needed SRA documents.
“We need to act with urgency, preferably after Holy Week,” she said.
“There are predicate crimes that have taken place and continue to unfold — and exposing these crimes may allow us to unravel the bigger crimes of economic sabotage and possibly plunder,” Hontiveros added.*