• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Negros Occidental Third District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez has sought an investigation on the sudden and significant decrease in the prices of sugar, stressing that “when sugar prices fall, so do the livelihoods of thousands of Negrosanons”.
In House Resolution No. 373, Benitez urged the House of Representatives, through the committees on agriculture and food as well as trade and industry, and other appropriate committees to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, into the plunge in the millgate price of locally produced sugar in Negros Occidental, and its adverse economic impacts on sugar producers and laborers.
“As the ‘Sugar Bowl of the Philippines’, our province deserves fair prices and policies that protect our farmers, planters and workers,” the neophyte lawmaker said.
At the start of the milling last week, sugar prices ranged from P2,200 to P2,300 per 50-kilo bag, way below by P300 from the standard production cost of P2,500.
Last year, prices ranged from P2,700 to P2,800.
During the recent Senate hearing on the budget of the Department of Agriculture, Senator Juan Victor Ejercito said that Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. expressed his commitment to strengthen the support to sugar farmers and the local sugar industry.
The National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers, Confederation of Sugarcane Producers, and the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines have called on the Sugar Regulatory Administration to explain the drop in the prices of sugar and molasses to a level much lower than during the milling season’s opening crop last year. | GB
