• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Negros Occidental 6th District Rep. Mercedes Alvarez yesterday said that she will support the conduct of a probe against sugar smuggling by the House of Representatives.
If that is the sentiments of our sugar planters, Alvarez said she will support it.
Three planters’ federations and a millers’ association called on Congress to investigate on the questionable sugar shipment which entered the country before the issuance of Sugar Order No. 6, which allows the importation of 440,000 metric tons of sugar.
Alvarez also said that she will raise the sugar smuggling issue with her fellow solons in Negros Occidental, in order to have a collective stand, as what they did with the Negros Island Region bill.
“It’s very effective if there is one movement in the House (of Representatives),” she stressed.
The House committee on Agriculture and Food is also slated visit the province, in connection with the issue on smuggling of agricultural products and issues concerning sugar industry, Alvarez said.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, who exposed the sugar smuggling issue, earlier filed a resolution asking the Senate Blue Ribbon committee to investigate it.
Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban disclosed that the move to import around 450,000 metric tons of sugar, is aimed at managing inflation and building a buffer stock that will adequately meet the country’s sugar requirements.
“In response to the directive of the President to address inflation and create a buffer stock and given that sugar as one of the components of most commodities that drives the consistently high inflation rate, I acted with haste and interpreted the memorandum issued by the Office of the Executive Secretary as an approval to proceed with the importation,” Panganiban told the members of the Malacañang Press Corps on Wednesday.
“With the urgency of the situation, I instructed three capable and accredited companies to proceed with the importation of sugar, provided that they agree to reduce the prices of sugar, sell the commodity in a price that is commercially acceptable in the market, and that they will shoulder the cost of warehousing,” Panganiban said.
In a memorandum from the Office of the Executive Secretary dated January 13, 2023, the DA was ordered to implement its recommendations to President Marcos, who is also the Agriculture Secretary, on the second Sugar Importation Program for the Crop Year 2022-2023.* with PNA reports
