Small farmers, agrarian reform beneficiaries, and sugar industry workers have launched a signature drive to an open letter to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. demanding the immediate resignation of all members of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Board, including Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., for “betraying” them.
Included in their call to resign are SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, Sugar Board planters' representative Dave Andrew Sanson, and millers' representative Ma. Mitzi Mangwag, they said at a press conference in Bacolod City on Thursday, April 30.
They have launched a nationwide campaign to gather 100,000 signatures to the open letter, Roland de la Cruz, national president of the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines – Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (NACUSIP-TUCP), said.
“We initially gathered around 5,000 signatures. We will continue to get more. We will deliver these to Malacañang,” de la Cruz said.
Officers from more than 30 agrarian reform beneficiaries associations, mill and field workers labor organizations, and other Nacusip-affiliated labor groups attended the gathering and signed the open letter. The small farmers and sugar workers, in their open letter, called on the president to replace the current Sugar Board with leaders “who understand the cost of every cane we cut, who will fight for a fair price, and who will put Filipino farmers first before foreign sugar and sugar traders.”
“We are tired of empty promises. We are tired of being sacrificed for their profit. We are tired of watching our dreams rot in the fields. Listen to us now, before the sugar industry—and the lives that depend on it—continue to be lost,” they told the president.
The recent over-importation of sugar, allowed by the SRA Board, has caused them severe suffering, they said.
“The price of sugar has fallen to its lowest level in history, while at the same time, farming costs such as fertilizer, crude oil, and many others have increased. The price of sugar is not enough to cover the costs of planting, harvesting, and the basic needs of our families,” they said.
“Every sack of imported sugar that arrives at our ports is like a nail hammered into the coffin of our livelihood,” they added.
They told the president they are fathers and mothers who can no longer afford to send their children to school, and whose children will see them grow old with debt.
“We are communities that are sinking deeper into poverty because of the people who should be protecting us, but who chose to serve their own interests,” they added.
The Sugar Board’s decisions have not only destroyed their income—they have also destroyed their dignity, the small farmers and sugar workers said.
The over-importation of 424,000 metric tons of sugar under Sugar Order No. 8, Series of 2024-2025, not only flooded the market at the beginning of the milling season but also brought down the price of sugar to poverty levels, they said.
What’s worse, the board refused to release the minutes of the meeting regarding Sugar Order No. 8, Series of 2024-2025, claiming the information was confidential, they added.*
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