The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has temporarily put on hold the importation of 200,000 metric tons of sugar following a court-issued temporary restraining order (TRO).
SRA Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica in a memorandum to all concerned applicants for the 2021-2022 sugar import program said it will temporarily be held in abeyance until further notice.
The TRO issued by Executive Judge Reginald Fuentebella of the Sagay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 73 was served on Tuesday, February 15.
The judge issued the order following a petition for injunction with prayer for the issuance of a TRO filed by the Rural Sugar Planter’s Association Inc., represented by its president Joseph Edgar “GJ” Sarrosa, against the SRA represented by Serafica.
The hearing of a writ of preliminary injunction will be held on February 24.
ANOTHER TRO
Enrique Tayo, president of the Negros Occidental Federation of Farmers Associations, has also filed a civil case for declaratory relief with prayer for issuance of temporary restraining order and writ of preliminary injunction against SRA before the Himamaylan City RTC.
He is also asking the court to halt the importation of the 200,000 MT of sugar.
The Asosacion de Agricoltores de La Carlota y Pontevedra Inc. and the La Carlota Mill District Multi-Purpose Cooperative have filed a motion to join the case of Tayo.
Himamaylan RTC Executive Judge Walter Zorilla has granted a 72-hour TRO and has set a hearing on Tayo’s petition on Thursday, February 17.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri has also filed a resolution seeking a Senate inquiry on the SRA order to import sugar at the height of the harvest and milling season.
‘SWEETHEART DEA’
Senator Imee Marcos, in a statement Wednesday, demanded transparency from the SRA for “sweetheart deals” with large industrial users of refined and bottler’s grade sugar.
A day after the SRA deadline to apply for importation, Marcos said a major softdrinks manufacturer and other processors of sugared products have cornered thousands of metric tons of the commodity and used traders as fronts to bring in larger import volumes.
“Why is the SRA so enamored of importation? What vows did manufacturers of sugared products make to get the SRA’s ‘I do’?” Marcos asked.
The SRA claims that Typhoon Odette’s damage to the sugar industry in December called for the importation of 200,000 MT of sugar.
But sugar farmers told Marcos’s office that only one mill shut down during the typhoon and that all sugar mills nationwide are now in full operation.
The United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) based in Negros, where 13 of the country’s 27 sugar mills are located, confirmed that the Southern Negros Development Corporation mill in Kabankalan City shut down due to flooding but “only for a week”, she said.
Marcos, who chairs the Senate committee on economic affairs, warned that small sugar farmers, who make up 85 percent of the industry, may not last the next crop season starting September, if sugar imports bring down farmgate prices and the high costs of fertilizer and of fuel for transport, tilling, and milling continue.
“To make ends meet, many small farmers have given in to usurers while others are now planting camote instead of sugarcane,” Marcos said.
“It’s more urgent to import fertilizers. But this should be done only for emergency use and on a government-to-government basis,” the senator said.
Marcos added that the government should also consider imposing an immediate price freeze on fertilizers, lowering the import volume of sugar, or scheduling deliveries in tranches outside the milling season, while developing locally made fertilizers could be a long-term program.
UNIFED lauded the support of Zubiri and Marcos to call for a Senate inquiry into the importation of agricultural products, including sugar, and the Negros Occidental Provincial Board for their unanimous objection to sugar importation while milling is at its peak.
“We are thankful for our champions in the Senate for their strong stance against ill-planned sugar importation and for seeking an inquiry into the questionable importation program of the Department of Agriculture and the SRA,” UNIFED President Manual Lamata said.
Serafica said on the advice of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel on the pending case for issuance of an injunction, the SRA will hold in abeyance any official statement or act pertaining to importation and will yield to the court’s order, in accordance with the sub judice rule.*