There is failure of accountability.
As the Philippine sugar milling year 2025–26 comes to a close the usual suspects consistently visit but this time it is most prevalent. The industry is once again hounded by allegations stifling of production control and corruption and the never-ending nauseating expose of sugar smuggling sans accountability. This not so new and not so surprising news now comes as no surprise. What is quite surprising in this milling season however, is the deafening silence and absence of accountability among sugar mills, of the thundering complaints of small sugarcane producers in their produce’s sugar content or brix content which are now all time lows.
The hope of the small sugar producers in the post-harvest period of sugarcane is the quedan, dependent on the quality of sugar content of cane yield delivered to sugar mills. This is the receipt that certifies a planter’s cane which comes as a proof that a planter’s cane has been milled into sugar and stored. This is what defines and carries the supply chain of our major product – in everyday operations and transactions is the trust between sugar mills and the planters, largely the small producers.
QUEDAN PROMISE
What could have been the sole and ultimate symbol of trust between and among the parties is the sugar quedan. In principle, the quedan is a symbol of transparency, an assurance that a producer’s cane was weighed, processed, and finally converted into sugar. It is his just and rightful share – his money out of the whole year’s sacrifice of producing the sugarcane. It is not only the timely release which is commonly delayed – not a mere paper or documentary requirement but it is all the more the guarantee among main actors of the whole product cycle, mainly the workers. It is also the relief of debtors and the producers that they are able to pay their debts and most especially sustain him and his family for the succeeding sugar mill season. The sugar quedan is the farmer’s ultimate hope for existence.
‘DELAYED’ REALITIES
There are always cases of delays – not one but many. One sugar mill in Southern Negros Occidental exemplified the delay as one farmer recently delivered his cane and the mill weighed and recroded it. Milling takes a few days and a few more for warehousing and the farmer’s quedan should have been ready by mid-May, had it been delivered on its first day. Truth is, delays reached one to two weeks. Suspicions arise from withholding to manipulation that pushed the farmers into disadvantageous deals with traders who have the capacity and the leverage to buy more time but who did not toil in the production aspect of the product’s supply chain.
Under the guise of “procedures” and the obvious bureaucratic gridlocks makes the farmers and small producers agonize over the entire process because these are used as tools of control by those in the powerful sections in the industry. I believe there must be a simpler and shorter process or strategy for the quedans to be released, that even the existing timeline can be reduced.
UNSEEN CONSEQUENTIAL COST
The delays in the processing and releases of quedans causes enormous economic negative impacts, notwithstanding the existing “ineffective” and weak institutions tasked to take full responsibility over the industry. This simply means that delays in releases of quedans signifies that sugar industry institutions are weak and ineffective at instituting policies meant to protect farmers and sugarcane producers. This lacks transparency that traps the producers in a “no way out” cycle of dependency, practically disempowering them. The quedan is a very significant tool in determining the kind of governance particularly in the industry that once put the country in the global map. The swift distribution of the producers’ cane quedan defines the institution’s efficiency and effectiveness in its governance, while its delays reflect weakness. To date, small producers groups, including some big planters’ associations, have called for the resignation of the sugar board of the Sugar Regulatory Administration, the agency tasked to regulate the sugarcane industry.
Also, there have been simultaneous calls for holding officials and agencies accountable for the mess the industry has suffered this current milling season. One outstanding concern is the all time low farm gate price of sugar. There are even calls for sugar mills to digitize their milling system, including quedan generation, ensuring transparency with just and fair treatment among all sugar producers – big or small, including small agrarian reform beneficiaries.
HONOR AND RECOGNIZE, NOT EXPLOIT
Negros, the country’s sugar heartland, deserves institutions that honor its producers. As the 2025–26 milling year ends, the challenge is clear: transparency without accountability is empty rhetoric. Whether in warehouses of sugar mills, small sugarcane producers deserve systems that deliver promises of poverty alleviation built on transparency. The quedan must return to its original meaning—a guarantee of trust, transparency, and ownership. The quedan is more than a receipt—it is a litmus test of governance. When delayed or manipulated, it exposes the fragility of institutions meant to protect producers. As the milling year ends, Negros hapless small producers remind us: failure of transparency is neglect without accountability. It is exploitation dressed as fairness.*
