Sugar workers slam additional imports
THE country’s sugar workers said the government’s call for additional importation of sugar and molasses would lower the wages of about 780,000 sugar planters or worst, make them lose their jobs.
In a statement dated October 1, the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) opposed the additional importation of 300,000 metric tons of refined sugar supposedly to combat inflation and the import of molasses being proposed by bioethanol companies.
Just recently, bioethanol producers under the Center for Alcohol Research and Development (CARD) has requested the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to import more molasses as feedstock to meet the annual demand of 500 million liters of bioethanol as the country can only supply 60 percent of the product.
The NSFW, however, argued that the country needs no additional importation of molasses as it has already increased its importation from 198,000 tons in 2015 to 484,000 tons in 2016, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Moreover, the SRA had already approved earlier the importation of 200,000 tons of sugar for Coca Cola and confectionery exporters. Importations would thus grow to 500,000 tons.
John Milton Lozande, secretary general of NFSW, said that while such importations would lower the prices of local sugar and molasses, it would simply lower the wages of their sugar planters.
About 335,000 sugar workers in Negros currently earn an average monthly income of only P1,500 to P2,000 per month or P30-P67 per day, said Lozande.
On the other hand, sugar workers in Cagayan Valley, where, like in Negros, sugar and molasses are produced, earn only an average of P170 a day, he added.
“As such it is a common occurrence that sugarcane worker families are forced to work together in many “Haciendas” making a family unit as the basic work force in many sugarcane plantations,” Lozande said.
“The already miserable lot of the sugarcane workers under the oppressive Hacienda system is further aggravated by the implementation of the Tax Reform Acceleration and Exclusion or TRAIN law in January 2018 which resulted to unending price hikes of basic commodities used daily by ordinary people including sugar workers,” he added.
According to Lozande, small sugar planters owning up to 10 hectares of land each would also be affected by the importation of said sugar products as this would lower the price of the crop they are producing.
They number more than 70,000 and comprise more than 79 percent of the total number of sugar planters, he added.
Lozande pointed out that “only big landlords, millers, bioethanol manufacturers and traders advocating for said importations of sugar and molasses would benefit from this scheme.”
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