Sugar industry stakeholders on Tuesday, June 27, called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to deny Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno’s plan to liberalize sugar importation, saying it will destabilize the livelihood of thousands of marginal sugarcane farmers.
“Liberalization will be the final nail in the coffin of the country’s ailing sugar industry,” Danilo Ramos, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chairperson, said.
Manuel Lamata – United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (UNIFED) president, Enrique Rojas – National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) president, Aurelio Valderrama Jr. – Confederation of Sugar Producers’ Associations (CONFED) president and KMP in separate statements aired their opposition to Diokno’s move.
UNIFED is appealing to the president to ignore calls of Diokno to allow industrial users to directly import their sugar needs as a concession to plans of increasing taxes on sugar sweetened beverages, Lamata said.
Lamata said they are “totally against the move of Diokno to liberalize importation in favor of a few industrial users.”
“He (Diokno) wants to further enrich these industrial users even knowing that this move will kill the more than 5 million Filipinos who are dependent on the sugar industry,” Lamata said.
Diokno is bent only on raising taxes without thinking of its effects on the sugar farmers. “Is Diokno prepared to give livelihood to these 5 million industry stakeholders?” Lamata asked
“The Finance Secretary is ill-advised,” Lamata said, adding that beyond the goal of raising taxes, “Diokno should also think of the consumers or the general public who will also be affected as these industrial users will surely pass on the additional taxes to their consumers.”
UNIFED is hoping that the President will not endorse this plan which was never even done in consultation with the sugar industry, Lamata said.
“We know President Marcos’ heart is with and for the farmers as he has told us so, and we are calling for his intervention on this matter,” he said.
“Diokno is clearly anti-farmer,” Lamata said.
Rojas said allowing manufacturers of sweetened beverages to directly import sugar will wreak havoc on the long-established government regulations over the sugar industry, and it will further destabilize the livelihood of thousands of marginal sugarcane farmers.
It can be recalled that, in 2016 and 2017, soft drink manufacturers freely imported high fructose corn sugar as sweetener for their products, he said.
Rojas said this caused the drastic drop in millgate sugar prices to almost below production level, and numerous farmers suffered losses.
“Worse, the use of cheaper imported sweetener input by these manufacturers simply fattened their pockets more, but it did not translate to lower prices of soft drink products for consumers,” Rojas said.
“We have learned our lessons. We strongly oppose direct sugar importation by manufacturers of sweetened beverages because it will destroy the livelihood of thousands of marginal sugarcane farmers, will not result to lower prices of sweetened beverages, and will simply further enrich these companies, “ Rojas said.
Valderrama said CONFED is also opposing the move to allow industrial users to directly import their sugar needs and the proposed additional tax on sugar sweetened beverages.
KMP bucked the proposal of Diokno to further liberalize the domestic sugar industry, saying allowing for more imports will not lower or taper current high prices nor cushion the impact of taxes on sugary beverages.
The peasant group said the majority of sugar farmers and workers in the sugar industry stand to suffer the same plight of rice farmers affected by rice tariffication once full liberalization of the sugar industry takes effect.
More than 85 percent of the country’s sugar planters are small planters with an average farm size of less than 5 hectares, Ramos said.
Most of the country’s sugar mills and refineries are in Negros in Visayas, he pointed out.*