Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Tuesday said imports under Sugar Order No. 6 was “legitimate and fully authorized by the government.”
The former chief justice made the clarification at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the issue of “Entries of Sugar Shipments in Philippine Ports Ahead of Sugar Order (S.O.) No. 6.”
“This was not an effort for cartelization. This was undertaken by the government to address inflation in the months leading to January 2023. The Administration made sure that there was buffer stock as a measure to regulate price increases. In a large way, the objective was realized,” Bersamin said.
He explained the Sugar Regulatory Authority (SRA) formed part of the sugar import regulation process in 2002 on the strength of a memorandum order expressly stating that no sugar will be imported without an SRA clearance.
Those without SRA clearance were referred to the Bureau of Customs for duties and charges while the SRA performed market classification for its disposition in accordance with rules and regulations.
This was why “a sugar order is not needed prior to importation,” Bersamin said.
Earlier on, the Executive Secretary pointed out that a sugar order is “not absolutely necessary” for the importation of the commodity.
“Because many things are alluded to my office, may I just make this clarification because this is a point of law: We were aware that the sugar order was not absolutely necessary for the importation to be made,” Bersamin said.
“In the end, the importation came into the country, that sugar order would still be essential as the basis for the issuance of clearances by the SRA because the clearances would be required by the Bureau of Customs. That is the context that the sugar order and clearance should be differentiated,” he added.
Bersamin asked the Senate to look at the rules and adopt amendments to clarify this policy. “To us in the Office of the President, we committed no irregularity or violation of law.”
Michael Escaler, one of three sugar importers summoned to the Senate Blue Ribbon hearing, spoke of building a world class trading company helping small farmers and balancing its earnings from the high price of domestic sugar and the competitive price of international sugar.
“We need to keep local sugar production viable. We import sugar only to fill the gap that the domestic industry cannot supply. Strengthening local sugar production is key to the country’s food security,” Escaler said.
Also at the hearing, Secretaries Arsenio Balisacan of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and Alfredo Pascual of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) confirmed the “tight” supply of sugar as driving its price higher since last year.
Balisacan said he alerted the President and the Cabinet on the rising price of sugar since June last year, and recommended among others, the immediate importation of 150,000 metric tons of the commodity.
He said when headline inflation averaged 6.1 percent, sugar inflation stood at 10.9 percent and progressively increased to 17.6 percent in July, 26 percent in August, 36 percent in September, 34 percent in October, and 38.8 percent in January 38.8 when headline inflation was 8.7 percent.
Balisacan called the sugar inflation “very alarming” and convinced President Marcos on the creation of an interagency committee on food providing “ex-ante analysis on the demand and price situation” as well as “policy decision on critical matters.”
The presence of the other departments in the inter-agency committee would give a “balanced perspective” of the producers’ interest, consumers’ interest, and the economy as a whole.
Balisacan said the NEDA is “seeing modest decline [of sugar inflation] in recent weeks, but sugar inflation is still 30 percent.”
On whether persistent elevated sugar price is caused by insufficient imports, he said he has to look at production side of the problem.
