Digicast Negros

Imee slams ‘thick faced’ agricultural smugglers

Senator Imee Marcos has condemned the unauthorized and fraudulent use of the Office of the President to justify the importation of sugar – “ultimate proof that thick-faced agricultural smugglers are lording it over at the Department of Agriculture.”

The senator, in a press statement  Thursday, August 11, lauded her brother’s timely rejection of the planned importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar but also urged an “immediate reshuffle of the DA’s top officials to dismantle criminal syndicates within the government.”

“Stop trying to fool my brother,” the senator said.

Local sugar producers told Senator Marcos’s office that sugar prices have spiked to above P100 per kilo because imports were being cornered by leading manufacturers of sugared products, in cahoots with DA officials, and were thus not reaching ordinary consumers.

The producers added that sugar milling was advanced two weeks ago to make more locally produced sugar available to retailers by the end of the month.

The senator also called for an investigation of DA Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian and other agency officials involved in reversing an import ban on swine-based processed animal proteins (PAP) from Italy and other countries affected by African Swine Fever (ASF).*

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