A massive coalition of sugar industry stakeholders issued a manifesto on Monday, May 4, calling for the replacement of the Sugar Board members and the immediate implementation of a government sugar-buying program.
They also called for adherence to the Department of Agriculture’s declaration of “no sugar importation for 2026” and the resumption of congressional investigations into the collapse of millgate prices of sugar.
The manifesto signatories include the Sugar Council, represented by officials of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations Inc., the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, and the Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers, which together account for more than 50 percent of the farmers’ share in national sugar production.
Also among the signatories are officials of the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines — the largest umbrella organization of labor unions in the industry, the Sugar Industry Foundation Inc., the Philippine Sugar Research Institute, and numerous other large unaffiliated planters, associations, and cooperatives.
They are demanding the replacement of the Sugar Board, the body that approves and signs all sugar orders authorizing the importation of refined sugar, which they blame for the drop in the price of locally produced sugar.
They are calling for the replacement of Sugar Board Chairman and Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel, Administrator Pablo Azcona of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), Sugar Board planters’ representative Dave Sanson, and millers’ representative Mitzi Mangwag “for neglect of duty, inefficiency, grave misconduct, and loss of confidence,” the manifesto said.
The industry stakeholders are also urging the government to immediately implement a government-funded “Purchase and Park” program to temporarily reduce excess sugar inventory from the domestic market in order to stabilize sugar prices, and the retention of the program as a price stabilization mechanism whenever needed in the future.
They said current practice of the SRA allows private importers to purchase local raw sugar to relieve excess inventory, rewarding them with allocations for the importation of refined sugar.
This led to over-importation, resulting in an excess inventory of refined sugar. As a consequence, refineries have seen less need to refine local raw sugar, causing local raw sugar inventories to swell and millgate prices to drop, the manifesto said.
It stated that last year Tiu-Laurel declared that there would be no sugar importation until the end of 2026. The manifesto exhorts the DA to adhere to its commitment.
This is crucial, the group said, since there is already a sugar order declaring the amount of refined sugar to be brought in. Sugar Order No. 3, Series of 2025-2026, Section 3.5, mentions an importation replacement of 1:3, where for every bag of raw sugar exported, three bags of refined sugar will be imported.
While no date has been set, the signatories said they would like to ensure that the DA will not go back on its earlier pronouncement that no importation will happen until the end of 2026.
The manifesto also called for the resumption of congressional investigations initiated by Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) in the House of Representatives and promised by Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito in the Senate, to ascertain the circumstances behind the collapse in prices of sugar and molasses and to enact legislation to prevent its recurrence.
The industry stakeholders are also calling for:
- Amendments to the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA) to make it more attuned to the actual needs of various sectors of the industry;
- A Congressional oversight on the implementation of SIDA-funded projects;
- An amendment to the TRAIN Law to tax sugar substitutes based on volume-equivalent sugar instead of actual volume;
- Strict monitoring and regulation of imported molasses and sugar substitutes;
- Strengthening of the Biofuels Program to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fuel;
- Suspension or elimination of the 1 percent Advance Creditable Withholding Tax on sugar and molasses sales and other related proceeds; and
- Timely and regular consultations by the DA/SRA with the industry through the Sugarcane Industry Stakeholders’ Consultative Assembly (SCA), as mandated by the SIDA.*