• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
Sugar Order No. 6 was a lopsided contract and a sugar order that is “out of order” because it is open to possible abuse of discretion due to the absence of transparency, fairness and equity in the importation program of the government, Save the Sugar Industry Movement (SAVE-SIM) secretary general Wennie Sancho said.
The proponents of the 440,000 metric ton sugar importation had forgotten the discourse of the great Spanish-American philosopher and poet George Santayana that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, while others repeat it without understanding,” Sancho said.
“Let us not forget that the Philippine sugar had long ago lost its market abroad to unfair rules of the global trade. And because of this, the industry fell into a crisis in the 1980’s. It is still in shambles right now because of competition from sugar imports, smuggled sugar, and sugar substitutes,” he said.
Sancho said that in the midst of this ranging issue on the 440,000 metric tons sugar importation, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) issued Sugar Order No. 6 and those who signed SO6 failed to evaluate the surrounding circumstances and history of the sugar industry, including the irreparable damage and injury that would occur in the implementation of this importation order.
The sugar order did not bear the signature of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as chairman of the SRA Board and Agriculture Secretary, he said.
“The government should implement its development program by the use of our resources and should grant protection or even import control to shield the sugar industry from unfair foreign trade practices like the sugar import liberalization scheme,” Sancho said.
The statement of Presidential Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil on January 29 that the release of imported sugar will be “timely and calibrated” belies the rush in their timeline and the quantity or volume in the arrival of sugar under SO6. The first 100,000 MT will be delivered as soon as possible and the next 100,000 MT on April 1, and the 240,000 MT buffer stock after April 1, Sancho said.
It was alleged that behind the sugar importation multi-million operation (sic), is a small cadre of wealthy men with the means and motive to impose their will on the government. They are the winners in this sugar scam, clothed with the authority of SP6 which has become an income generating project for their own economic advantage, he said, adding that there is a roar of a coming deluge, not of water but of imported sugar.*
