- GILBERT BAYORAN
The budget for the implementation of Republic Act 10659, or the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA), has been increased from P750 million to P1 billion this year, Negros Occidental 5th District Rep. Emilio Bernardino Yulo said.
However, Yulo, who used to be a member of the Sugar Regulatory Administration Board, said the P1 billion budget is not enough to answer all the basic needs of the sugar industry.
He pointed out that even if the original budget of P2 billion, as mandated by law is restored, it will still not be enough.
The SIDA budget has been slashed several times, to the extent of reducing it from P2 billion to P500 million annually, because of under-spending, Yulo said.
RA 10659 was passed into law in 2015 to boost the production of sugarcane and sugar, as well as to increase the income of farmers, for which the law provides an annual allocation of P2 billion.
Of the P2B allocation, P1 billion has been earmarked for infrastructure, such as farm to mill roads, P300 million for credit, P100 million for scholarships, P300 million for block farms of agrarian reform beneficiaries, and P300 million for shared facilities program.
Except for farm to mill roads and scholarship components, Yulo said the budget for socialized credits, farm mechanization, and block farming components were underutilized.
The Negros solon cited the “too stringent requirements” set by the Land Bank to its creditors.
Yulo also stressed the need to rework the block farming component, especially on how to attract agrarian reform beneficiaries to avail of it./GB
