The leaders and representatives of small farmers, agrarian reform beneficiaries, and allied sectors under the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP) Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Council on Monday, Jan. 19, called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to remove Dave Sanson from the Sugar Board.
“We demand, in no uncertain terms, the immediate removal of Mr. Sanson from the Sugar Board. His continued tenure is an affront to justice and an insult to the labor and farmers movement,” a press release from Anthony John Demisana, secretary general of the NACUSIP Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Council, and Roland de la Cruz, NACUSIP-TUCP national president, said.
“We issue an urgent call to President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos: act decisively and without delay. Appoint real farmer and worker representatives to the Sugar Board,” they said.
They said they express not just grave concern but outright indignation over the recent pronouncements of Sanson, planter representative on the Sugar Board, regarding the increase in sugar mill gate prices.
Sanson’s statements are a blatant attempt to legitimize an exportation program that was forced upon them without any semblance of consultation or transparency, resulting in manipulated price hikes that deliberately exclude and exploit the very backbone of the sugar industry—the workers and farmers whom the SRA is supposed to defend, the statement said.
“It is painfully clear that Mr. Sanson has abandoned his duty to champion the voices of small farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries. We, the true stewards of the land and the workforce that powers the sugar sector, have never witnessed his presence in our communities, nor have we benefited from his so-called leadership and representation,” the statement said.
“We demand a radical transformation—a truly inclusive, progressive, and worker-driven administration that delivers justice, dignity, and opportunity to the marginalized pillars of the sugar industry,” the statement said.
DIGICAST NEGROS was unable to reach Sanson for answer.*
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