• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP) on Wednesday, Feb. 25 demanded for the removal of all members of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Board, claiming they abandoned the very people they have sworn to defend.
The call was made by NACUSIP president Roland de la Cruz during the congressional inquiry on the state of sugar industry presided by Quezon First District Rep. Mark Enverga, chairman of House committee on agriculture, at the People’s Center of the House of Representatives in Quezon City.
The hearing was attended by Negros Occidental’s Third District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez, Fifth District Rep. Emilio Bernardino Yulo, Sixth District Rep. Mercedes Alvarez, and Abang Lingkod party-list Rep. Manuel Frederick Ko.
In a statement read before the panel, Dela Cruz alleged that the term of SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, planters’ representative David Andrew Sanson, and millers’ representative Ma. Mitzi Mangwag has been marked by record-low farm gate prices, disastrous importation policies, secrecy and absence of transparency in crafting sugar orders, and a blatant disregard for small planters and agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
“We demand their immediate removal and insist on true champions of the oppressed, leaders with backbones, integrity and heart to fight the marginalized,” De la Cruz said.
He further claimed that “the collapse of the sugar industry is not an accident, but a direct result of reckless over importation, unregulated entry of molasses, and indifference to the suffering of the real stewards of the land”.
“The plummeting mill gate prices of sugar are a death sentence of small farmers and ARBs, who are being forced to harvest early, sell at a loss, and drown in debt just to survive,” he added.
By attending the congressional hearing, De la Cruz said they come not with a hat in hand, but a demand for genuine justice.
“We will not be silenced, we will not allow our future to be decided in the back room elitist talks by those who profit from our misery,” he added.
Moreover, NACUSIP called for full disclosure and publication of the Sugar Board minutes, especially on Sugar Order No. 8, saying that “the Sugar Board has operated like a secretive club, hiding its decisions from the very people whose lives it controls”.
Their request to the SRA and the Department of Agriculture for a copy of the minutes of the meeting, in relation to Sugar Order Nos. 2, 3 and 8 fell on deaf ears, they added.
The labor group reiterated their demand for the government to urgently implement a sustainable sugar buying program that guarantees a fair and stable floor price of the produced sugar, and immediate release of emergency cash assistance to all ARB-farmers in distress.
They also called for amendments to the SRA Charter, stressing that it is outdated and continues to serve the interests of a select few and inclusion of representatives for ARBs, sugar field and mill workers.
They demanded as well for an immediate, unconditional one-year moratorium on all penalties and interests for loans from the Land Bank of the Philippines for ARBs and cooperatives.
De la Cruz urged the lawmakers to stand with them and investigate the prioritization of imports over the ARBs and small farmers’ hard-earned harvests. | GB
