• GILBERT P. BAYORAN

Members of the House committee on Agriculture and Food were unanimous in seeking the restoration of the P2 billion budget for the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA) of 2015, in the proposed P6.3 trillion budget of the national government for 2025, its chairman, Representative Wilfredo Mark Enverga, disclosed yesterday.
Enverga, who presided over the committee public hearing held in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, as facilitated by 3rd district Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez, admitted that it would be difficult to lobby for the P5 billion budget for SIDA, as being pushed by sugar industry stakeholders, given the issues on absorptive capacity of the Sugar Regulatory Administration, to implement its programs.
Under the 2025 proposed national budget, an amount of P1 billion has been allocated for the implementation of SIDA law.
“If we will be able to resolve it in the public hearing, as well as on proposed amendments of SIDA law, I think it would help us justify to the Department of Budget and Management the need for us to improve, or even increase the allocations for SIDA,” Enverga said.
The committee hearing, which was attended by Negrense Reps. Emilio Bernardino Yulo, Mercedes Alvarez, Greg Gasataya, Stephen Joseph Paduano, Manuel Sagarbarria, aside from Benitez, SRA head Pablo Luis Azcona, and leaders of various sugar federations, deliberated House Bill 835, an Act strengthening the Sugarcane Industry,increasing its annual supplemental budget, and for other purposes, and HB 2207, an Act Amending Section 11 of RA 10659, or SIDA of 2015.
SIDA 2015, primarily authored by then 3rd district Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, aims to increase production efficiency in sugarcane farms, and sugar mills through research and technological innovation, infrastructure, and human resource development.
However, as reported by the SRA in previous hearings, the implementation of the programs, aside from the hard infrastructure, has been slow and with limited impact, Enverga said.
Among the issues and concerns raised in three public hearings include SRA’s low absorptive capacity and under utilization of the SIDA fund, delays in the Memorandum of Agreement preparation, and project implementation due to concerns in the conduct of bidding, harmonize the importation data of Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Internal Revenue and SRA, as well as lack of personnel, the solon said.
Rep. Yulo, who used to be a member of the SRA Board, also joined the call of industry stakeholders to increase the SIDA budget, stressing that the number of projects, from five to 10 years ago, have now increased.
The SIDA mandates an annual allocation of P2 billion for the sugar industry’s productivity improvement programs, allocated as follows: 50 percent for infrastructure support; 15 percent for grants to block farms; 15 percent for socialized credit for farm support and farm mechanization programs; 15 percent for research and development, capability building and technology transfer activities; and 5 percent for scholarship grants.
Regarding the under utilization of the SRA budget, Yulo said that during his stint with SRA, there was no problem in the implementation of farm to mill roads and scholarship programs, except for the block farms and procurement process.
He explained that SRA has always been an agency regulatory body, but never a developmental agency, and has no personnel for managing developmental projects.
Yulo is pushing for the creation of a separate entity, such as the Project Management Office, specifically to manage the SIDA projects.
On the other hand, Azcona said the P2 billion budget of SIDA has limited coverage, for a big industry.
One of the biggest problems is block farming, where SRA is only allowed to organize 20 to 40 block farms, with a budget of P5 million, for its working capital, tractors and fertilizers, he added.
Azcona however said the processing, especially in socialized credits, is now being streamlined, as well as the bidding process, as the Land Bank is very helpful.
During the public hearing, the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP), Confederation of Sugar Producers’ Associations (CONFED), Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers (PANAYFED), and the Philippine Sugar Millers Association (PSMA) submitted a joint proposal which contains measures to improve farm productivity and mill efficiency.
The measures call for amendments to the Sugarcane Industry Development Act (SIDA) of 2015, particularly the increase in annual SIDA funding from P2 billion to P5 billion, the creation of a dedicated SRA-SIDA Program Management Structure focused on the implementation of SIDA-mandated programs, and the institutionalization of the Stakeholders’ Consultative Assembly (SCA) and Sugar Industry Development Council (SIDC).*