- NND NEWS TEAM
A Temporary Restraining Order was issued by Sagay Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Reginald Fuentebella enjoining and restraining the Sugar Regulatory Administration from implementing Sugar Order Number 3, that allows the importation of 200,000 metric tons of sugar.
Fuentebella, in his order dated Feb. 11, said the TRO will be affective for 20 days, with the motion for the writ of preliminary injunction filed by the Rural Sugar Planters’ Association Inc. against the SRA set on Feb. 24, through video conferencing.
Joseph Edgar Sarrosa, who represented the Rural Sugar Planters Association Inc., assailed the importation of sugar, which he said will bring about grave injustice, untold irreparable injury, losses and damages to the sugar industry that has already been devastated by Typhoon Odette, since this will negatively impact the price of sugar.
Sarrosa added that there is no basis for the issuance of SO 3, as SRA administrator Hermenegildo Serafica himself stated that “there is no reason for prices to increase, since supply is stable, despite the effects of Typhoon Odette”.
The importation of sugar will reportedly start next month.
Sarrosa said that a copy of the TRO decision is now on its way to be served to Serafica in Manila.
Former SRA board member Dino Yulo said the local raw sugar prices dropped by P230 per 50-lkg bag, after the SRA announcement of sugar importation.
Sarrosa said that Serafica, who is also a sugar planter, should know the possible repercussions of an “ill-timed, ill-planned issuance of the sugar order.”
Worst hit are 90 percent of sugar farmers, who are already suffering from the skyrocketing prices of farm inputs, and will suffer more due to the drop in sugar prices, he stressed.
“Since last year, we have been appealing to SRA and the Department of Agriculture, as well as other government agencies, to help us with the high price of farm inputs, whether through a price freeze or subsidies, but nothing came through,” Sarrosa further said.
Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation, of which the Rural Sugar Planters Association Inc. is a member, said, “We must put a stop to the damage already caused by the SRA and administrator Serafica, and their inaction on our various appeals to avert an agricultural crisis.”
Serafica has claimed that the sugar order aims to ensure stability on local market prices, in response to complaints on high prices of sugar, as of this time.
But Lamata said that SO3 does not directly answer the so-called complaints of local vendors, as half of the imported supply will go to bottling companies.
Reiterating his call for the resignation of Serafica, who is also a former member of Unifed, Lamata claimed that the SRA chief is not competent enough to manage the sugar industry.
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Negros Occidental earlier passed a resolution raising its objection to the importation of sugar.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri also filed a resolution directing the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the recent order of SRA to allow sugar importation, even at the height of the harvest and milling season.
The planters said that of the total output of sugar farmers, more than 60 percent are being consumed by industrial users but with the importation, local sugar cannot move and will put the small farmers on the losing end by selling their produce at very low prices.
The Unifed said that in a worst-case scenario, they are looking at the possibility of calling for a boycott against the products of industrial users, similar to what had happened several years ago.
They are also calling on to the Office of the President to act on their request of removing Serafica for “pushing them to the wall”.
They thanked Zubiri for bringing to the attention of senators the crisis being faced by sugar farmers./GB, MML
