Sen. Hontiveros reaffirms support for sugar producers

After spearheading the Senate Resolution which led to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation last May 23 of the imported sugar which arrived prior to the issuance of Sugar Order No. 6 allowing its importation, Sen. Risa Hontiveros reaffirmed her support for sugar producers in a meeting in Bacolod City Tuesday, July 18.

“Thank you very much for acceding to my office’s request to have this dialogue,” said Sen. Hontiveros. “We don’t want to leave the rather bruising Sugar Order No. 6 issue in the air. Although our Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman (Francis Tolentino) adjourned the hearing, on my pressing he added a kind of colatilla that it is without prejudice to scheduling another hearing.”

The hearing probed the circumstances behind the arrival at the Batangas Port of imported sugar in 260 20-foot containers on February 9, six days before the issuance of Sugar Order No. 6 on February 15 allowing the importation of 440,000 metric tons of sugar.

“I know that the sugar industry stakeholders, particularly here in Negros, will not let it remain forever an unfinished story, because we really want to move forward. Whatever lessons we learned in engaging SO6, we want to use them as tools in engaging effectively this new Sugar Order No. 7 (for the importation of an additional 150,000 mt sugar), and to strategically enable the Philippine sugar industry to survive and to thrive,” she added.

Hontiveros invited to the meeting the Sugar Council composed of officers and members of the Confederation of Sugar Producers’ Associations, Inc. (CONFED) led by Aurelio Gerardo J. Valderrama, Jr., the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) led by Enrique D. Rojas and the Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers (PANAYFED) led by Danilo A. Abelita.

She assured her intent to persuade her colleagues in the Senate to continue with the investigation on Sugar Order No. 6, considering that many questions remain unanswered and many issues need to be clarified which can enable the Senate to more constructively make recommendations that can help the sugar industry come up with a better outcome.

Among the other issues raised by stakeholders were the persistently high retail prices of sugar despite the huge volume of importation, the inclusion of complicit government officials and employees as culprits in the proposed Expanded Agricultural Smuggling Act, institutionalization of guidelines for the spending of SRA fees collected from imported sugar, and the activation of the Stakeholders Consultative Assembly under the SIDA Law.

Sen. Hontiveros pledged that she will continue consulting with sugar producers and other industry stakeholders, so that she can introduce legislative measures which can more effectively safeguard the welfare of the sugarcane farmers and Filipino consumers.* (Butch Bacaoco)