Senator Cynthia Villar on Thursday issued a warning on the already slashed P500-million budget of the Sugar Regulatory Administration in 2019 from the P2-billion budget since it was created in 2016 would be further cut to only P67 million by 2020 if its “underspending” continued.
“The reduction through the years has been the result of underspending, which if left uncorrected will result in a budget of only P67 million by 2020,” noted Villar, chairman of the Senate agriculture and food committee.
Villar expressed dismay over the reported failure of the Sugar Regulatory Administration to fully implement Sugar Cane Industry Development Act (SIDA) four years after it was enacted into law.
The Department of Budget and Management initially allocated to SRA P2-billion budget for 2016, but was reduced to P1.5 million in 2017 and P1 billion in 2018.
SIDA, the first law passed by Villar as a senator, aims to ensure that the sugar industry will be able to compete head on against foreign players.
“I passed the law to boost the sugarcane industry which contributes P70 billion to the country’s economy annually. Moreover, an estimated 700,000 Filipinos are directly employed in sugar production. The industry really plays a vital role in the country’s economic development,” the Nacionalista Party senator said.
But Villar said she could not understand why the understanding,, which she described as “disastrous,” was happening.
“We want to make them competitive and sell [sugar] to the consumers at lower price,” she said.
She said food processors were complaining about the expensive sugar in the market so processed foods also became very costly.
During Thursday’s hearing on the failure of the SRA to fully implement SIDA, Villar scored SRA officials led by Administrator Herminigildo Serafica for their inability to spend the funds allocated to implement programs and advance the sugar industry
She also demanded reasons behind the failure which had prejudiced the sugar industry and stakeholders.
“I have always been telling you before, don’t ever underspend because the DBM will cut your budget because they will say, perhaps you don’t need the money so the6 will must cut and cut so every year they cut your budget so now, you have only P500,” Villar told SRA during the hearing.
Serafica admitted some lapses in its implementation and even took to task Land Bank of the Philippines for failing to lend funds to the farmers.
He said that in 2016, SRA only spent P914 million for infrastructure projects, P85 million for block farms, P48 million for socialized credit and around P90 million on scholarships.
When Villar, in an interview, was pressed why SRA’s underspending has been dragged for four years, the senator said officials of the agency had always sought “another chance” to rectify their lapses.
“Everytime we call their attention about this underspending, they always asked for another chance, promising to attend to this problem. Because of this, we opted to heed their request, but it’s been four years, and still, no improvement was made,” Villar told reporters in an interview after the hearing.