Sugar import liberalization inevitable, senator says

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Senator Cynthia Villar on Friday said that sugar import liberalization is inevitable.

“It is just a matter of time,” she said.

Villar, who was in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental Friday morning, urged sugar industry stakeholders to be competitive.

She was invited by Tatak Kalamay, an aggrupation of sugar industry stakeholders, to a consultation with sugar farm workers in the fourth district.

Villar said she is mulling the creation of the National Sugar Program after the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) “failed” to implement the Sugar Industry Development Act which initially allocated P2 billion for development programs of the sugar industry.

Under the SIDA Law, programs that are meant to uplift the lives of sugar farmers and farm workers must be funded by at least P2 billion annually.

The programs include the construction of farm-to-market roads (FMRs), block farms, provision of equipment, credit, and scholarships

But SRA failed to carry out the mandates of the SIDA Law, thus the budget was reduced to P1.5 billion in 2019 before it was further slashed to P500 million in 2020.

Villar said since SRA is more of a regulatory body, she will propose a law creating the Sugar Development Program, a body that will be focused on development programs to brace the sugar industry for import liberalization.