Sugar Regulatory Administration board members Pablo Luis Azcona and Ma. Mitzi Mangwag, and David Alba, acting SRA administrator, (l-r) at Malacañang Monday afternoon, August 22.*
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the newly appointed members of the Sugar Regulatory Administration Board on Monday, August 22, to immediately come out with Sugar Order No. 1 setting the allocations for all sugar produced in the country for crop year 2022-23.
The newly appointed members of the Board proposed the classification of all of the sugar produced in the country for the new crop year as “B” for the domestic market, David Alba, Sugar Regulatory Administration acting administrator, said.
There will be no allocation of sugar for the US Sugar Quota.
The president ordered us to prepare Sugar Order No. 1 for his approval after consulting industry stakeholders, Alba said.
The president convened the Sugar Board, which he chairs as concurrent secretary of agriculture, at Malacañang after he swore its new members Monday afternoon.
Sworn it by the president were Alba and SRA Board members Pablo Luis Azcona representing the planters and Ma. Mitzi Mangwag for the millers, who are all from Negros Island.
Also discussed by the Board was Sugar Order No. 2 on the importation of 150,000 MT of sugar but it is not expected to be issued soon as they still have to draw up the mechanics, Alba said.
Alba, who is general manager of the Asociacion de Agricultores de La Carlota y Pontevedra Inc. and the La Carlota Mill District Multi-Purpose Cooperative, was accompanied by his wife, Rica, at the oathtaking rites.
Azcona is a United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) director and Mangwag, who is from Negros Oriental, is manager of Cagayan Robina Sugar Milling Company.
Manuel Lamata, UNIFED president, said we are very happy that finally the new members of the board have been appointed and have taken their oaths in front of the president.
The new board is going to bring back sanity and how the SRA was before Hermenegido Serafica, who was removed as SRA administrator, he said.
UNIFED will give its full support to the new members of the SRA Board, Lamata said.
Lamata said a nationwide survey of all the sugar in mills and warehouses of traders should be conducted so they will know exactly how much sugar stock the country has.
Lacson said “this is what we have always been hoping for, that a Negrense will again head the SRA and so Mr. Alba has been appointed to head it.”
He also noted that the planters’ representative on the Sugar Board is also a Negrense.
It’s good that the sugar board has been reorganized because there are problems besetting the sugar industry that can now be tackled, Lacson said.
SMUGGLING, HOARDING
Malacañang in a statement Monday said that the supposed sugar shortage in the country is “artificial” and caused by hoarding done by unscrupulous traders.
Armed with a Letter of Authority (LOA), operatives of the Bureau of Customs swooped down on a warehouse at No. 306 Kabatuhan St. along Deparo Road in Caloocan City and stumbled on hundreds of bags of smuggled rice and sugar.
Aside from tons of smuggled rice and sugar, BoC agents also seized the repacking machines which were being used to repack imported rice and sugar to make it appear that these were locally procured by the warehouse owners, the Palace said.
Last Saturday, four warehouses in Guiguinto, Bulacan, inspected by authorities yielded at least 60,000 bags of suspected hoarded sugar, it added.
Customs agents found imported sugar from Thailand in the warehouses at 50 kilograms per sack. At least two of the warehouses were half-full while one warehouse have sacks of sugar neatly stacked up to the roof, Malacañang added.
The huge volume of sugar discovered by Customs agents in the various warehouses in Luzon has led Malacañang to conclude that the sugar shortage is artificial, brought about by the hoarding of sugar traders who want to rake-in huge profits from the sudden spike in sugar prices, its statement said.
Subic Port customs personnel also earlier seized 140,000 bags of imported sugar from Thailand equivalent to 7,000 metric tons.*