Sugar industry stakeholders urged the government just before the long weekend to conduct an “open and transparent” investigation on sugar acknowledged to have been imported even without a proper sugar order.
The request represents a ramping up of pressure for the legislators, particularly the Senate, to act quickly and defuse an escalation of events that could ruin the already perilous lives of thousands of sugar farmers.
In a joint statement issued on February 22, 2023 by the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters Inc., the Confederation of Sugar Producers Association Inc., the Philippine Sugar Millers Association Inc. and Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers Inc., the stakeholders said an investigation must be “quickly undertaken to establish the facts.”
Their collective stance is for the importers and officials involved in the entry and subsequent release of the illegal shipments be investigated and, if liable, be made to answer to the full extent of the law.
“We condemn in the strongest terms any and all acts of sugar smuggling, which constitute economic sabotage that wreak havoc on the livelihood of thousands of sugarcane farmers, 90 percent of whom are agrarian reform beneficiaries and marginal farmers who rely solely on sugar for their sustenance,” the stakeholders said.
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros earlier bared the arrival of 260 units of 20-footer container vans with estimated 5,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar at the Port of Batangas in February 9 and called on the Blue Ribbon committee to conduct an inquiry.
Hontiveros emphasized the shipment arrived before the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) issued Sugar Order (SO) No. 6 on February 15, which allowed the importation of 440,000 metric tons of sugar.
She said that based on the documents, the importers All Asian Counter Trade Inc., Sucden Philippines Inc. and Edison Lee Marketing Corp. were extended import allocations ahead of the release of SO 6.
Department of Agriculture (DA) senior undersecretary Domingo Panganiban previously acknowledged having “acted with haste” and ordered the importation by three private firms he chose from a list provided to him, given the urgency brought about by the limited supply of sugar and its impact on inflation.
Panganiban said he was aware of procedures observed by the SRA on the importation of sugar but said he only followed the directive issued to him by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.
Based on DA’s monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region, the prevailing retail price of refined sugar stands at P87 to P110 per kilo, P83 to P95 per kilo for washed sugar and P80 to P95 per kilo for brown sugar.
