Lawmakers are taking their probe into the “crisis-hit” sugar industry directly to its stakeholders with a joint Senate-House of Representatives public consultation in Negros Occidental on January 23, Rep. Javier Miguel “Javi” Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) announced on Thursday, Jan. 8.
The hearing will be led by Rep. Mark Enverga for the House and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan for the Senate, said Benitez, who will be hosting the event.
“This follows the resolution I filed calling for a joint House–Senate inquiry on the sugar industry,” he said.
“This is a very important time for our farmers’ voices to be heard and for all of us to help the sugarcane industry,” Benitez said.
“The sugar industry is in crisis. Precipitous price drops, reduced sugar yields, and soft demand for domestic sugar are leaving farmers and millers financially distressed, sugar refineries underutilized, and sugar workers facing the prospects of drastic work reductions,” Confederation of Sugar Producers Association president Aurelio Gerardo Valderrama Jr. said on Wednesday.
“It has come to the point that sugarcane farmers are seriously considering abandoning sugarcane cultivation because of unprofitable millgate prices this crop year,” National Federation of Sugarcane Planters president Enrique Rojas said.
“We are in desperate need for immediate solutions. The workers and farmers are entertaining the idea of mounting coordinated but peaceful public protest against the slow and delayed help from the Department of Agriculture and the Sugar Regulatory Administration,” labor groups said.
“We have heard the many voices calling for help for the sugarcane industry. This industry is now at a critical juncture and needs quick, effective, and well-studied moves to save it together,” Benitez said in a statement in December.
He said the Senate and the House of Representatives are “opening an opportunity to hear the voices of our stakeholders in this industry”.
This consultation also aims to provide solutions to the challenges faced by the entire industry that have a profound impact on the economy, he said.*