• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Stressing that sugar prices are determined by supply and demand, Negros Occidental 3rd district Representative Javier Miguel Benitez dismissed claims circulating online that the congressional hearing triggered the decline in sugar prices.
Benitez, who facilitated the congressional investigation into the status of the sugar industry, following the sharp decline of sugar prices, described the allegations as baseless and irresponsible, noting that the accusations allegedly originated from within the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
“Rather than answer for the oversupply it authorized, the SRA would rather point the finger at the institution that chose to investigate it,” the solon said.
The National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines – Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (NACUSIP-TUCP), and its allied workers’ and agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations, also stood firmly with Benitez in denouncing what it alleged as SRA’s campaign of misinformation and baseless blame-shifting.
For the nth time, the NACUSIP-TUCP demanded the immediate release of the official minutes of **Sugar Order No. 8, Series of 2024–2025.
“The SRA’s secrecy is a betrayal of the farmers and workers who keep this industry alive. Transparency is non-negotiable,” NACUSIP-TUCP president Roland dela Cruz, said in a statement.
The labor group also reiterated its call for the resignation of SRA head Pablo Luis Azcona, Planters’ Representative Dave Sanson, and Millers’ Representative Ma. Mitzi Mangwag.
De la Cruz claimed that their continued presence on the Sugar Board has fueled poverty and injustice among small farm tillers and agrarian reform beneficiaries.
The sugar industry belongs to the workers in the fields and the farmers who till the land—not to bureaucrats who hide behind closed doors, he further said.
In a statement, Benitez said the hearings conducted in aid of legislation helped build the basis for the Department of Agriculture’s extension of the sugar import ban through December 2026, describing the moratorium as vital protection for local producers.
“Ang hearing nga ila ginabasol, amo ang nagprotekta sa aton (The hearing that they blame, is what protects us),” the solon said, as he underscored that Congress acted to address instability in the industry and stand with the farmers.
Benitez noted that at the start of the October 2025 milling season, total physical sugar inventory reached 902,082 metric tons, up 44 percent from the previous year, while carryover stocks stood at 738,633 metric tons, nearly double the ideal buffer level.
These conditions, according to the lawmaker, reflected an excessive supply already in the market.
Benitez also pointed out Sugar Order No. 8, which authorized the importation of 424,000 metric tons of refined sugar scheduled to arrive between July and November 2025, coinciding with the opening of domestic milling.
Negros sugar industry leaders, he noted, recommended only 150,000 metric tons.
According to him, the timing and volume of imports contributed to the sharp drop in farm-gate prices, which fell to between P2,000 and P2,200 per 50-kilo bag by January 2026, which is below production costs.
“All of this happened before any hearing was announced,” he said, adding that commodity prices respond to actual market conditions, not congressional inquiries.
He emphasized that traders stopped purchasing because warehouses were already full, not because of new information from the House of Representatives.*
