Sugar sector welcomes Senate resolution
Credit to Author: EIREENE JAIREE GOMEZ| Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2019 17:05:35 +0000
LEADERS of the local sugar industry on Thursday lauded 10 lawmakers for passing a resolution urging the Executive Department to scrap the proposed import liberalization on sugar.
Resolution 1014 was introduced and adopted by Senators Juan Edgardo Angara, Nancy Binay, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Richard Gordon, Loren Legarda, Aquilino Pimentel 3rd, Joel Villanueva, Cynthia Villar and Juan Miguel Zubiri in view of safeguarding the economy and welfare of sugar farmers and industry workers in the country.
“We are very thankful that our senators closed ranks with us. This just shows they understand the plight of the sugar industry and its stakeholders,” Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board member Emiliano Bernardino Yulo said in a statement.
“We know the battle is far from over but this senate resolution gives us a glimmer of hope that not all is lost.”
Raymond Montinola, spokesperson of Condeferation of Sugar Producers (Confed) said: “Our senators were right in pointing out that the planned liberalization of the economic managers can lead to the demise of the industry we love and can result to a tumultuous peace and order situation that we don’t want to relive again.”
“But with that, we are not letting our guards down and we will continue to be vigilant and seek the intervention of our president to ensure that the plans of the economic managers will never be implemented,” he added.
Economic managers proposed the liberalization of sugar imports to help tame inflation and bring down the prices of the sweetener in the market, noting that the prices of local sugar have gone too high as against those in the world market.
The senators, however, said the deregulation measure will not affect the competitiveness of sugar-containing food products for export because it is already a policy of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to allow food exporters to openly import sugar without value-added tax or customs duties provided that the end product is exported and not sold locally.
“The deregulated entry of subsidized sugar in the Philippine market will be disastrous to our sugar industry which contributes about P96 billion to the country’s gross domestic product,” the resolution said.
It noted that about 84,000 farmers, mostly small farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries, and 720,000 industry workers will be directly affected if the proposed measure pushes through. The senators said the proposed liberalization of sugar industry contradicts the President’s thrust towards food security and will severely affect the entire agriculture sector.
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