A coalition of labor groups is calling on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to seriously investigate the alleged corruption in the impending importation of sugar and appoint an agriculture secretary to address the problems of the industry.
The Save the Sugar Industry Movement (SAVE-SIM) also slammed the reported entry of shiploads of smuggled sugar into the country through the Port of Batangas.
“May we respectfully suggest that the president appoint a secretary of agriculture who can assess and evaluate the problems confronting the sugar industry,” Wennie Sancho, SAVE-SIM lead convenor, said at a press conference in Bacolod City on Wednesday, February 15.
The survival of the people of Negros Occidental, which is the largest sugar producing province in the country, depends on the president’s addressing this, Sancho said.
The president is the country’s concurrent secretary of agriculture.
“The problem of the sugar industry is merely a reflection of the failure of government to capacitate the agriculture sector,” Sancho said.
“The sugar workers will be at the losing end of this massive importation”, Sancho said, adding that he believes the president has been “misinformed”.
Sancho blamed what he called the corrupt traders and government officials who are acting a facilitators in the massive sugar importation, and slammed the alleged smuggling through the Port of Batangas.
Sugar Order No. 6 granting the importation of 440,000 metric tons of sugar was signed by the members of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Board on Monday.
Sancho said 504,000 MT of imported sugar will actually flood the domestic market, citing the 64,000 MT allowed under the minimum access volume.
The SRA should be consistent in implementing its regulatory powers but the question is who will regulate the regulators, he said.
Sancho said he does not believe government will backtrack on its “massive” sugar importation, “it is a done deal”.
The labor groups are calling on the sugar planters’ federations to help them send a strong message to the government that the 504,000 MT importation is an injustice to the small producers, the majority of whom are agrarian reform beneficiaries, and the workers in the sugar industry, Sancho said.
“The sugar industry is in danger right now. If this will continue and nobody opposes this unjustified action, the sugar industry will collapse,” he warned.
“We will continue to manifest our indignation against this unfair, immoral and unjustified importation, “Sancho said.
If this continues the three-month annual dead season in the sugar industry will become permanent, he said.
All of the 440,000 MT will be coming into the country as reserve sugar, Azcona said Tuesday.
There is a portion that will come in immediately and the rest will arrive in different tranches, he said.
The 240,000 MT of sugar will serve as the country’s buffer stock and the rest will be released into the domestic market, but not immediately, Azcona said.
The release of the 200,000 MT will depend on the inventory situation and the price of retail, he said.
“The goal is to drive down the retail price without affecting the farmers too much,” he said.
Sancho alleged that “when the decision-making process in the importation of sugar is subverted so that power and influence in the sugar import business industry falls under the control of those who have no respect for the welfare of the stakeholders in the sugar industry, particularly, the workers and the consumers, the system will become a tool for oppression and the promotion of selfish ambition”.
A horde of “facilitators” have strategically embedded themselves in the sugar trading import business. They are government officials who are entrenched in the business of sugar import-export trading, he claimed.
He cited Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, who in a privilege speech last year said that there are government officials who are facilitating the sugar importation, receiving P100 per bag of sugar.
The government should look into the plight of the marginal farmers and workers in the sugar industry. They should be given a share in the profit of sugar importation for their economic survival in the midst of the unabated increases in the prices of basic goods and services, he said.
“The sugar importation program of the government should be inclusive. The major stakeholders should participate in the importation, rather than to select a few, favoring a particular group of importers and traders to the prejudice of the sugar industry and the workers in general”, Sancho said.*