Liberalized sugar importation will kill the industry, lawmaker says

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental 5th district Rep. Dino Yulo joined sugar producers in opposing the call of Finance Secretary  Benjamin Diokno to allow direct sugar importation.

“It will kill the sugar industry,” according to Yulo, a former member of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).

Sugar planters’ federations in the country had opposed sugar liberalization, which, according to Diokno, is a “reasonable compromise” following plans to raise taxes on sugary drinks.

Yulo pointed out that the plans to liberalize the sugar industry, which has been pushed by industrial users in the past, “will be largely felt by small sugar producers,” noting that the sugar industry is composed of 90 percent marginalized farmers.

He further said that “the sugar industry is the lifeblood of the province.”

Yulo echoed the statement of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) that “liberalization will not favor any particular sector.”

Earlier, Senator JV Ejercito, United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED), and the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) have expressed opposition to Diokno’s plan.

Yulo noted that under the present system, the SRA regulates the importation of sugar and determines the volume to be imported, after assessing the local industry’s capability to satisfy the country’s consumption demands.

NFSP president Enrique Rojas said in a statement that “allowing manufacturers of sweetened beverages to directly import sugar will wreak havoc on the long-established government regulations over the sugar industry, and it will further destabilize the livelihood of thousands of marginal sugarcane farmers.”

UNIFED president Manuel Lamata said they are “totally against the move of Diokno to liberalize importation in favor of a few industrial users,” as he sought the intervention of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who is also the concurrent Agriculture secretary.

“He (Diokno) wants to further enrich these industrial users even knowing that this move will kill the more than 5 million Filipinos who are dependent on the sugar industry,” Lamata said.

Diokno, he added, is bent only on raising taxes without thinking of its effects on the sugar farmers. “Is Diokno prepared to give livelihood to these 5 million industry stakeholders?”

“The Finance Secretary is ill-advised,” Lamata said, adding that beyond the goal of raising taxes, “Diokno should also think of the consumers or the general public who will also be affected as these industrial users will surely pass on the additional taxes to their consumers.”

UNIFED is hoping that the President will not endorse this plan which was never consulted with the sugar industry.

“We know President Marcos’ heart is with and for the farmers as he has told us so, and we are calling for his intervention on this matter,” Lamata said.

“Diokno is clearly anti-farmer,” he added.