Sen. Francis Tolentino deferred yesterday’s hearing in the Senate on the so-called sugar importation fiasco due to the absence of Department of Agriculture officer in charge Domingo Panganiban and other officials who were on official business trips abroad.
Aside from Panganiban, National Economic Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual, and former Sugar Regulatory Administration chief David John Alba were no-shows at the hearing.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who was physically present at the hearing to represent the Office of the President, explained that Panganiban is currently in Washington DC for an official mission and will be out of the country until May 13.
Balisacan is currently in Vancouver, Canada until May 11, while Pascual is in Indonesia to attend a ministerial level conference until May 11, he added. Alba is in Australia until June for personal reasons and could not attend the hearing, Tolentino revealed.
Since they are considered “vital to the investigation,” Tolentino opted to set the hearing to another date. “We might have a hard time if we were to continue without them,” he noted.
Meanwhile, three sugar importers who brought in the commodities under Sugar Order No. 6 early this year, the subject of the deferred Senate hearing, were chosen from a list recommended by two large sugar farmers’ groups, documents showed.
The Luzon Federation of Sugarcane Growers Association (LUZONFED) and United Sugar Producers’ Federation of the Philippines, Inc. (UNIFED) made the recommendation through a Joint Board Resolution dated August 1, 2022.
In the resolution, the two groups recommended seven traders for the importation of additional sugar to boost local supply based on their track records of directly buying from local farmers and millers.
Recommended by the raiders were All Asian Countertrade, Inc; Amerop, Philippines, Inc.; Sucden Philippines, Inc; Edison Lee Marketing Corporation, Oro Allado Commodities, Inc.; San Fernando Eric Commercial, Inc. and Skylark Company, Inc.
It was from this list that Panganiban picked the three traders who committed to import the sugar as soon as possible.
Earlier, Panganiban said he interpreted a memorandum issued to him by the Office of the Executive Secretary as a “go-signal” to proceed with the importation.
“In response to the directive of the President, to address inflation and create a buffer stock, and given that sugar is one of the components of most commodities that drive the consistently high inflation rate, I interpreted the memorandum issued by the Office of the Executive Secretary as an approval to proceed with the importation,” Panganiban said.
The memorandum from Bersamin dated Jan. 13 ordered the DA to implement its recommendations to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is also the Agriculture Secretary, on the 2nd Sugar Importation Program for the Crop Year 2022-2023.
Panganiban said he instructed three “capable and accredited” companies from a three-page list to proceed with the sugar importation as long as they reduce the cost of sugar to a commercially acceptable price.
“Mr. Escaler, Mr. Alvarado, and Mr. Lee — the three companies I have selected from a list that was given to me and I considered them as the most capable importers that we have,” he said, referring to the owners of the three trading companies.