- GILBERTY BAYORAN
While he is not opposing the plan of the national government to import sugar, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said that volume and timing should be taken into consideration in the importation.
“We’re not against it, as long as it will prevent smuggling and is well studied. Also the volume, and timing when this imported sugar will come in,” Lacson, who is also a sugar planter, said.
The Sugar Regulatory Administration is now in the process of drafting a plan to import about 450,000 metric tons of refined sugar in response to the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to maintain a two-month buffer stock.
The United Sugar Producers Federation (Unifed), one of the country’s biggest sugar blocs, issued a statement supporting the government’s plan to import refined sugar as buffer stock.
Unifed president Manuel Lamata said he hopes that it will arrest the runaway retail prices of sugar.
Three other sugar planters’ federations – the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers, Confederation of Sugar Producers Association, and the Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers – asked SRA to show the actual and projected sugar production, as well as consumption figures, with regard to the request of the soft drink industry for sugar importation.
The Carbonated Soft Drinks (CSD) group said they project that the country’s sugar inventory would only last until the second quarter of the year, posing a serious threat to their continued operations.
Negros Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer, who is the personal adviser of Marcos Jr. in Western Visayas, said the sugar importation plan must be implemented during the off-milling season.
“We have never been consulted about any sugar importation,” Ferrer said.
If there is a shortage, the SRA must present figures and data, for the president to decide.
As to the need for SRA and the sugar industry to consult the provincial government, Lacson said “the sugar industry is a very matured industry already.”
“It really needs very little intervention from the government. It can stand on its own,” the governor said
“The only time they will reach out to the government is when it feels that there is smuggled sugar coming in, and on importation. These are issues that the sugar industry and the government can work hand and hand,” Lacson pointed out./GB
