• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Negros Occidental Third District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez dismissed claims circulating online that the congressional hearing held last month triggered the decline in sugar prices.
Benitez, who facilitated the hearing on the status of the sugar industry following sharp decline in sugar prices, said the allegations are baseless and irresponsible, noting that the accusations allegedly originated from within the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
“Rather than answer for the oversupply it authorized, the SRA would rather point the finger at the institution that chose to investigate it,” he said.
In a statement, Benitez said the hearings conducted in aid of legislation helped build the basis for the Department of Agriculture’s extension of the sugar import ban through December 2026, describing the moratorium as vital protection for local producers.
“Ang hearing nga ila ginabasol, amo ang nagprotekta sa aton (The hearing they blame, is what protected us),” the Negrense lawmaker said.
Citing data he obtained, Benitez noted that at the start of the October 2025 milling season, total physical sugar inventory reached 902,082 metric tons, up by 44 percent increase from the previous year, while carry-over stocks stood at 738,633 metric tons, nearly double the ideal buffer level.
“These conditions reflected an excessive supply already in the market,” he added.
Benitez also pointed to Sugar Order No. 8, which authorized the importation of 424,000 metric tons of refined sugar scheduled to arrive between July and November 2025, coinciding with the opening of domestic milling.
Negros sugar leaders, he noted, had recommended only 150,000 metric tons.
He said the timing and volume of imports contributed to the sharp drop in farmgate prices, which fell to between P2,000 and P2,200 per 50-kilo bag by January 2026, below production costs.
“All of this happened before any hearing was announced,” he said, adding that commodity prices respond to actual market conditions, not congressional inquiries.
The National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (NACUSIP-TUCP) and its allied workers’ and agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations, stood firmly with Benitez in denouncing what it alleged as SRA’s campaign of misinformation and baseless blame-shifting.
The NACUSIP-TUCP has been demanding for the release of the official minutes on the approval of Sugar Order No. 8, Series of 2024-2025 and the resignation of SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, planters’ representative David Andrew Sanson, and millers’ representative Ma. Mitzi Mangwag.
“The SRA’s secrecy is a betrayal of the farmers and workers who keep this industry alive. Transparency is non-negotiable,” its president Roland de la Cruz said in a statement.
De la Cruz claimed that their continued presence on the Sugar Board has fueled poverty and injustice among small farm tillers and agrarian reform beneficiaries. | GB
