‘Liberalizing imports to kill sugar industry’
Credit to Author: Eireene Jairee Gomez| Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2019 16:31:41 +0000
(First of 2 parts)
BACOLOD CITY: “If the liberalization will go on, then the sugar industry will die.”
Raymond Montinola, spokesman for the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations Inc., made this declaration in connection with the government’s plan to liberalize sugar imports.
For years, the country’s sugar industry has been threatened by high cost of production, low yield, low farm income and climate change.
Local sugar planters believe the worst is yet to come.
In January this year, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno announced the plan to liberalize sugar importation after moves to remove the import restrictions on rice.
He said local sugar was “very expensive” compared to those in other sugar-producing countries.
While the proposed sugar import liberalization would negatively affect local producers, Diokno said opening up the market to cheap imported sugar would benefit a greater number of consumers.
Sugar leaders, however, said cheaper imports would hurt farmers and eventually kill their livelihood.
Last January 30, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Board, headed by former Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol, signed a resolution reiterating the policy of the state that it should be the SRA that would “regulate the release of imported sugar in the domestic market.”
Since then, opposition to the proposal has snowballed.
The controversy on the liberalization of sugar imports continued when the Department of Finance (DoF) formally proposed in its Economic Bulletin dated Sept. 27, 2019 the deregulation of local sugar importation, citing challenges to the competitiveness of the food processing industry.
The food processing exporters have been lobbying for open importation because of the high cost of retail sugar in the market.
The outcry, however, just grew bigger as House Resolution 412, which formalized the opposition of legislators to the plan, was passed in early October.
At least 24 lawmakers signed the resolution.
In an unprecedented move, food processors and exporters recently announced that they have decided not to push through with their lobbying for liberalizing importation in support of the local sugar industry.
Instead, they asked for a sugar import allocation of an estimated 105,000 metric tons annually to stabilize their manufacturing input and increase their global competitiveness with lower cost.
Inquiry
Negros Occidental First District Rep. Gerardo Valmayor said several congressmen were pushing for a congressional hearing to address the major issues faced by the sugar industry.
He explained that the inquiry would help determine the current situation of the local sugar industry and answer questions such as why the Sugar Industry Development Act fund had not been fully utilized for the past years, and the mechanisms to be put in place to protect and empower local sugar planters and agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
The probe, Valmayor said, might be conducted next month and would be attended by officials of the DoF, SRA, Department of Agriculture and Department of Trade and Industry.
It will be led by the House Committee on Food and Agriculture and the Visayan Development Committee.
“We intend to invite… the Department of Finance kasi galing sa kanila ‘yung
liberalization. So, we will have to hear from them. So, bakit? Ano ba ‘yung mga reason? Ano ba ang effect nito? Talaga bang kaya natin? O baka lalong mawala inclusive growth natin (We intend to invite the DoF because the liberalization plan came from them. So, we will have to hear from them. So, why? What are the reasons? What are the effects? Are we really capable? Or the more our inclusive growth gets lost)?” Valmayor said.
“With these resolutions that we could pass, especially kung galing sa plenary (if they came from the plenary) and if we have a counterpart in the Senate, then we hope for the President to respond and hopefully hindi na matutuloy ito (the plan will not proceed),” he added.
Negros Occidental Third District Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez expressed fears that liberalization could result in insurgency among smallholder farmers and farm workers, particularly the ARBs, who were granted lands under the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
“With what is happening now, ARBs will be most affected. They have the most to lose. You promised them land, and then you don’t give them the support, they will end up selling their lands again,” Benitez said.
“The State didn’t give them the necessary support. And now they are liberalizing,” he added.
Under Republic Act 6657, or the “Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law,” the Philippine government must redistribute private and public agricultural lands to “landless farmers and farm workers” and encourage them to operate as small independent farmers.
Benitez said the House would also look into the issue of profiteering in the sugar sector, adding that it wants to “make sure that the SRA is functioning properly” in providing necessary assistance to millions of sugar farmers across the 28 sugar-producing provinces in the country.