Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri during the Blue Ribbon committee hearing on the alleged sugar fiasco Tuesday, September 6.*
Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri on Tuesday, September 6, said sugar industry stakeholders must be allowed to import supplies of the commodity on their own to end suspicions of “tong-pats”, or the price-padding scheme.
Zubiri made the recommendation as the Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations, or the Blue Ribbon Committee wrapped up its inquiry on the fiasco involving the import order released by Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), a press release from the Senate said.
There should be less intervention from the government on importation, and end-users should instead be authorized to source their sugar supply based on their needs, Zubiri said.
“If possible, there should be less government intervention. If possible, hand over the importation directly to our high-demand users,” Zubiri suggested.
He said SRA Acting Administrator David John Thaddeus Alba, as well as sugar millers and farmers, agreed to his proposal in a recent meeting.
“So there would be no more price-padding issue.Because if we don’t do that, there will always be questions of corruption in the agency,” Zubiri stressed.
Meanwhile, the Senate President lauded Blue Ribbon Committee chairman, Sen. Francis Tolentino, for swiftly acting on his call to investigate the SRA’s release of the Sugar Order No. 4, which Malacañang said was unauthorized by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who concurrently heads the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The order would have permitted the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar.*